On Wednesday 02 February 2005 22:14, Anshuman Dasgupta wrote:
The FOSS community is about independence and effort to understand and excell in computing.
While that might be one reason to use FOSS, it's a bit assumptive to think that it's the only reason. Over several years, I've seen open source software being used for different purposes and freedom from closed source solutions was not a factor in many of these setups.
The primary purpose of Free and Open Source Software is Freedom. Utility, performance, world domination etc. are beneficial spinoffs. If the user does not value his most important asset (or his most important asset is not his freedom) than that is his problem.
I am not exactly sure what you mean by "excel in computing."
understand how best to make the binary beast work and create great apps and systems by reusing what others have done before you.
While I understand the importance of looking up documentation, I also find the "go do your homework" attitude to be more than a little patronizing.
Oh really. Presuming that the list members are sitting on their butts to answer the same question a hundred times is very "thoughtful".
On a different note, this is my first posting on the mailing list. It's nice to discover a vibrant LUG in Mumbai.
welcome to the real world. And do reply to those newbies being patronized so badly.
rgds jtd
Sometime Today, cobbled together some glyphs to say:
The primary purpose of Free and Open Source Software is Freedom. Utility, performance, world domination etc. are beneficial spinoffs.
If the software has no utility or bad performance, then free or not makes no difference, it's still useless. There's loads and loads of useless free software around.
The primary purpose of Free and Open Source Software is Freedom.
To you perhaps. But, not necessarily to every user or developer of open source software.
Utility, performance, world domination etc. are beneficial spinoffs. If the user does not value his most important asset (or his most important asset is not his freedom) than that is his problem.
I disagree. I, like many others, have on several occasions chosen open source solutions because of its technical superiority over other software. These decisions had nothing to do with the software's license. So, utility and performance are hardly "spinoffs" and have real implications on whether people use open source. Trying to define what the "most important asset" for users of FOSS should be is, at best, meaningless.
While I understand the importance of looking up documentation, I also find the "go do your homework" attitude to be more than a little patronizing.
Oh really. Presuming that the list members are sitting on their butts to answer the same question a hundred times is very "thoughtful".
You missed the point of my comment. I don't presume that list members have to answer the same question a hundred times.
-Anshu
On Thu, 3 Feb 2005 10:43:44 -0600, Anshuman Dasgupta anshu.dasgupta@gmail.com wrote:
The primary purpose of Free and Open Source Software is Freedom.
To you perhaps. But, not necessarily to every user or developer of open source software.
Utility, performance, world domination etc. are beneficial spinoffs.
Hi guys,
I hope we stop this thread here only. THis is going to be an endless debate . Everyone has his/her opinion about the things. In my opinion if the question is repeated or trivial then let them answer who wants to and if anyone feels it trivial then he shud not.The freedom is urs.
Pankaj
The primary purpose of Free and Open Source Software is Freedom.
On Thu, 2005-02-03 at 22:13, Anshuman Dasgupta wrote:
To you perhaps. But, not necessarily to every user or developer of open source software.
I disagree. I, like many others, have on several occasions chosen open source solutions because of its technical superiority over other software. These decisions had nothing to do with the software's license. So, utility and performance are hardly "spinoffs" and have
u seem to be missing the primary issue. While what you say above is true, please take a little time to understand the concept of "Freedom" as we use it.
what made this software technically superior? If the "Free" license that it was distributed under which allowed numerous people around the world to contribute, check, use, debug and send in suggestions was not even in a little way responsible, then what was? At the end this "Free" license is reason we are even debating this point on this list right now.
while everyone might not be in it b/c of simply the freedom it gives us they all must understand and respect the "FREE" license to contribute or even use the software as they seem fit under the terms of the license.
even by choosing it b/c of technical superiority you are automatically (perhaps unknowingly) choosing to work with it b/c of the "Freedom" it provides.
rgds Erle
Sometime Today, EP cobbled together some glyphs to say:
what made this software technically superior? If the "Free" license that it was distributed under which allowed numerous people around the world to contribute, check, use, debug and send in suggestions was not even in a little way responsible, then what
Umm, sometimes software is technically superior simply because some company put millions of dollars and research into it.
Case in point is the Oracle database. It is way way way superior to any Free Software equivalent in terms of performance, scalability (both vertically and horizontally), robustness and features.
Large organisations often end up choosing MySQL or PostgreSQL over Oracle primarily because of the cost. Small guys choose MySQL or PostgreSQL simply because they don't need anything more. Sure, you can push it to huge limits, but it's when you do that that you start to notice its weaknesses.
If the "Free" license that it was distributed under which allowed numerous people around the world to contribute, check, use, debug and send in suggestions was not even in a little way responsible, then what was? At the end this "Free" license is reason we are even debating this point on this list right now.
I couldn't agree more. I am well aware of the benefits of Free software and my previous comment does not contradict any of the points that you raise here. People use open source for different reasons and breaking the dependence on, as some would call it, "spoon-fed user assistance" is only one of them. What I am critical of is presuming to know what the purpose of the user is and tailoring hostile responses to queries based on that presumption.
even by choosing it b/c of technical superiority you are automatically (perhaps unknowingly) choosing to work with it b/c of the "Freedom" it provides.
Again, I am not disputing the claim that a Free license led to a technically superior product.
-Anshu
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