28 Dec
2005
28 Dec
'05
9:32 a.m.
On Wednesday 28 December 2005 13:29, Dinesh Shah wrote:
Hi Terrence,
On Wed, 2005-12-28 at 10:49, JTD wrote:
Partly true or false - it depends what point in time u make the
observation and what is your definition of "value and worthiness".
So in the 1990s gnu and linux was actually "worthless" to most. And
today your statement is less true or false - most products have to
vend their way thru a host of middlemen before reaching the "people".
So the product is worthless because middlemen like music companies
(or theatre owners) cannot get their "value" out of a product. Every
argument can spin both ways.
Precisely these reasons hinder the widespread use
of foss. The
big difference is that foss is not a Company that has to think of
cash infusion today to fund tomorrows market or worry about
someone else's business going phut. All you have to do is focus
on technology.
I don't agree with the above reasoning. If any technology, however
superior, can not reach the people, I would consider it useless and
worthless. Remember technology is for the benefit of mankind not
the other way round. It is really sad that many people just talk of
technology for technology's sack.
like the MIT lab where personal computing started? Or some pokey place
with two college kids making apples from ICs? or a few developers
writing the next revolution?
The idea behind FOSS is to make technology available and accessible
FREELY to people. The attitude of some people in FOSS, technology
for the technology's sack, is hurting the FOSS, apart from many
other reasons.
I think not. Since it is foss those feeling hurt can pick the code and
fork it with pleasure - X.org, uclinux, rtlinux. As long as the
technology is FOSS someone can always pick up broken threads and
weave it into a useful blanket.
It is when the only "value" that the market attaches to "products" is
monetary that things get badly skewed. And i will quickly contradict
myself by saying that monetary value is what business has to think
about mostly - hence i decided not to pursue (as fax) the great tech
that i created in the distant past. I however used all of the
expertise in countless other projects, earned good money and more
important had and continue to have lots of fun doing so.
In short as long as there is freedom all the contradictory forces will
resolve them selves over time. Skew it with legislation like DRM or
patent laws in the guise of helping the inventor and u get screwed.
--
rgds
jtd