[Fsf-friends] Fwd: Response to the e-mail to the Editor. Vivaravicharam

[Dileep M. Kumar]

On Fri, Aug 29, 2003 at 10:15:19PM -0400, Anil Kumar K V wrote:

>>>I fully agree  with the philosophy of freedom,  which is propagated
>>>by  FSF team. However  imposition of  the terms  such as  "GNU" and
>>>"Free  Software" is  not justifiable  as these  word  contains only
>>>manufactured  messages to  convey.   It is  not  advisable to  urge
>>>others to use a term whose message is a manufactured one. Advocates
>>>of these terms may have some emotional satisfication in using these
>>>terms  and need  not be  the case  with all  who campaigns  for the
>>>freedom.

Oh.  I had  good  values  for OSS.  Now  I think  I  was having  false
impressions about your company. 

>>>Usually   a   movement   or   philosophy  is   called   after   its
>>>originator. However a product is  referred by its shortest name for
>>>convenience.  It is  true that  major portion  of the  Linux  OS is
>>>developed by GNU. So it can be named as "GNU/Linux". Since there is
>>>no Linux OS other than GNU/Linux, the usage of "Linux" is justified
>>>by ease of use.

By calling  the OS GNU/Linux,  in a way  we are giving credit  to that
Great Movement which  created a Nice OS. Caling it  just Linux you are
simply neglecting  the efforts of several other  programmers who wrote
various other programs. 

>>>There are spatial  variations in the meaning of  certain words. The
>>>word "Free" for us is actually more linked with 'free of cost' than
>>>to "freedom". However

You contradict your views by the  below para. Thats why FSF people say
Freedom(as  in Free  Speech)  is  more important.  We  never say  Free
software is Free Lunch.

>>>How can  a full  time activist of  a "free software"  movement earn
>>>their livings.  Or whether only part-time activist  are expected to
>>>work for this movement, and  find their earnings from a proprietary
>>>environment?  Is  it a  good  idea  to  promote local  co-operative
>>>movements to  overcome this crisis  ?  This has much  relevance for
>>>software  workers   in  a  third  world   scenario  where  software
>>>development is considered as a source of employment.

Regards
-- 
 .''`.     Dileep M. Kumar <dileep@kumarayil.net>
: :'  :    http://www.kumarayil.net
`. `'`
  `-  Debian GNU/Linux - Choice of the Freedom Lovers