RE: reiser4 non-free?
Hans Reiser wrote:
> >
> >
> Yes, I believe that, and that is my concern.
I can understand that. That's why I'm working on the 'creditsd'
infrastructure. Decoupling the credit content from the visual aspect of
the program's performance makes the following possible...
1. It makes it possible for people that created your system to achieve
notoriety. This is very important for people that are rarely paid
directly for their contributions. If the credits achieve a relatively
fine granularity, it could create a workable 'credits' currency. A
currency where egoboo has a tangible metric. From a systems and
cybernetics viewpoint it creates a more rapid feedback loop. More
egoboo. More "free" code. Faster. In economics I believe that's
called 'velocity'.
2. You'd have to go to extreme and undeniable lengths to re-brand and
remove attribution from those who deserve it. You will be shunned by
most of the engineering community. It would be very black-and-white.
No chance for "he said, she said" equivocation.
3. It takes credits out-of-band, so you don't have to worry if
displaying a credit message will:
a. annoy or confuse the end-user at the wrong moment (not what we are
trying to do)
b. negatively affect performance
c. risk the chance that a well-intentioned credit at startup will be
buried because the programming that displays the credit lives at a
completely different level. (ie: shell command being invoked from a GUI,
or a web page served by apache/linux/reiser4).
4. No need for "...and then you go to jail". If developers are getting
attribution in proportion to their efforts -- gaining notoriety and
generally feeling good about their contributions, there will be no need
to modify the GPL v2. The occasional transgressor, a pariaha in the
community will have little to no effect on the economics of the
situation.
Economics, like physics, is not an option. There is an economy of free
software. We can either work with it or against it. Perhaps this is a
step towards that goal.
(BTW: Has anyone actually written a formal book on the economics of free
software? I know about the Cathedral and the Bazaar, but that's more
about the philosophy and the environment. I want to see supply, demand,
Laffer curves, etc...)
I'll try to forward some rough ascii art later....
jim burnes
security engineer
great-west, denver
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