Re: It's Time to Talk About Free Software Again

[Steve Greenland <stevegr@debian.org>]

On 20-Feb-99, 15:28 (CST), Chris Waters <xtifr@dsp.net> wrote: 
> There seems to be a myth going around that business people won't like it
> if we talk about freedom.  The fact is that the Republican party in the
> US (the conservatives, for you non-USers) has been making political hay
> by talking to business people about freedom for years.  Business people
> *love* freedom!

The "freedom" that "Business People"[1] *love*, and the one that the
GOP has been selling, is the freedom for the corporation to do whatever
the hell it wants, with little or no concern for employee, community,
or national wellbeing. It has little or nothing to do with the kind of
freedom we're talking about when we talk about free software.

And what "Business People" want from software is somebody to blame when
it doesn't work, and a feeling that the selector of the software can't
be blamed. Thus the desire to pay money to commercial vendors, and the
"nobody gets fired for buying IBM/Microsoft" attitude.

Sorry for the rant...

Steve

[1] Yes, I know it's a generalization, not all business people are so
short-sighted.