Andrew J. Weiss
Director of Linux Development &
Systems Administrator
Boxx International Corporation
1 Skyline Dr.
Hawthorne NY 10532
(914) 347-9300 ext. 212
(914) 347-9305 FAX
-----Original Message-----
From: tb@MIT.EDU [mailto:tb@MIT.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2000 3:47 AM
To: Adam Rogoyski
Cc: debian-devel@lists.debian.org
Subject: Re: General Resolution: Removing non-free
Adam Rogoyski <rogoyski@cs.utexas.edu> writes:
>Yes, it is a choice, and the users who use it and the Debian
>developers who package it are not enemies but usually friends. I
>myself am a user of some packages from non-free.
>But the software companies who produce these packages, sometimes in
>direct competition with free software, are our enemies.
I would argue that companies who compete and/or copy technological ideas.. then restrict how well they cooperate with known standards, free software, or any other competing software are the enemy. Companies that wish to keep their trade secrets secret and make money off them aren't necessarily the enemy. Consider a company that invents a great database system. Their optimizations are secret, their code isn't free, because they may be first they can develop a standard, or not... it's up to them. Case in point such company is the standard.. do they hamper others from using or developing to their standard? Do they embrace and extend a free standard? (if so they are the enemy) if not... they are like Oracle and any other large company with some of the best products in the world... not free by definition but not necessarily harmful... look at all the databases that use SQL.
Some see things in black and white. I think many FSF advocates see things in red and white.
Andrew
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