Re: Is free software political?

[Miles Fidelman <mfidelman@meetinghouse.net>]

On 3/21/19 5:04 PM, Jonathan Carter wrote:

> On 2019/03/21 22:25, Joerg Jaspert wrote:
> > Yes, please go.
> >
> > > 1. Do you think that free software is inherently political? Do you think
> > > there's place for politics in free software?
> > > 2. The same as #1, but for Debian instead of free software.
> Well, I think that in the case of #1, the Free Software Foundation (and
> hence the free software movement and free software) is very much
> political on purpose, it's part of their core identity and this guides
> their decisions.
>
> In Debian's case, we definitely take less political stances (if at all),
> but many of our choices have consequences and I don't think it's wise to
> deny that there are major political consequences to our work, and while
> I don't think it's necessary to have as many political stances and
> statements as the FSF does, I do think that we should perhaps also be
> more diligent when considering non-technical consequences of our decisions.
Well, maybe Debian keeps a low key public stance, but the community 
certainly has more than it's share of politics.  And not in the good sense.

Miles Fidelman


--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.  .... Yogi Berra

Theory is when you know everything but nothing works.
Practice is when everything works but no one knows why.
In our lab, theory and practice are combined:
nothing works and no one knows why.  ... unknown