There was an interesting discussion on who controls Free Software development process. I thought that three distinct ideas were intermixed, when they should not have been. I am writing out my thoughts on the ideas.

i) Freedom Free software is all about Freedom, and nobody can dictate what you can and cannot do with such software. In other words nobody has control (`cracy`) over anybody else. With regard to the linux kernel it was written that "Linus Torvalds controls the kernel development process."

That is not true Linus only controls his own tree, he cannot control anybody else's tree. Anybody and everybody can have their own kernel tree and kernel development process.

Also he does not have a road map of where the kernel is going, and in that sense where Linux kernel goes is more of a collaborative effort than a form of `cracy`

ii) Merit I think that Linus tree has more merit in the sense that it fits the needs of various people, that any other tree I have a hope of building myself.

It has been written on this list that "Linus Torvalds has much more influence in the future direction of Linux than I have."

I am entirely in agreement with the idea of his having an influence on the kernel. Altough his influence comes from the merit of his ideas, he still does not have control, and if some of his ideas do not have merit they must be discarded.

iii) Control I am not a believer in control (coercion), whatever disguised form it might take.

It has been written on this list that "Generally open source software is a meritocracy - the "best choice" is purely based on a meritocracy. meritocracy is how all of this functions."

I think that we must base our decisions on merit, however the fact that a persons ideas have merit should not mean that the person gains some form of control. `Cracy` can be and should be seperated out from merit.

I think free software is about being able to recognize merit in each other and therefore build a better society, while retaining freedom. i.e. without giving up freedom, and without giving control to others.

Thanks Krishna

===== To Reflect, to Inspire and to Empower http://www.employees.org/~krishnap/

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