Freedom, Merit and Control - Fsf-friends

30 Apr 2004

      Hi Krishna,
A Great way to describe Free Software. I fully agree with you and second 
your opinion. Freedom and Merit go hand in hand and merit is subject to hard 
work and research put behind it. Direction of research is again ascertained 
by keeping our ears open to the NEED; need of the classes and need of the 
masses. I think with FSF there is no reason why we cant touch base with both 
the segments.
regards,
tarun
...
Message: 4
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 19:53:16 -0700 (PDT)
From: Krishna Pagadala krishnaact@yahoo.com
Subject: [Fsf-friends] Freedom, Merit and Control
To: fsf-friends@gnu.org.in
Message-ID: 20040430025316.29080.qmail@web11903.mail.yahoo.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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/

Do you Yahoo!?
Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs
http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover

Fsf-friends mailing list
Fsf-friends@mm.gnu.org.in
http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends
End of Fsf-friends Digest, Vol 12, Issue 31

_________________________________________________________________
Need quick cash? http://go.msnserver.com/IN/46923.asp Click here !