[Fsf-friends] Freedom, Merit and Control

[Tarun Gaur]

Hi Krishna,

A Great way to describe Free Software. I fully agree with you and second 
your opinion. Freedom and Merit go hand in hand and merit is subject to hard 
work and research put behind it. Direction of research is again ascertained 
by keeping our ears open to the NEED; need of the classes and need of the 
masses. I think with FSF there is no reason why we cant touch base with both 
the segments.

regards,
tarun


>
>Message: 4
>Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 19:53:16 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Krishna Pagadala <krishnaact@yahoo.com>
>Subject: [Fsf-friends] Freedom, Merit and Control
>To: fsf-friends@gnu.org.in
>Message-ID: <20040430025316.29080.qmail@web11903.mail.yahoo.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>There was an interesting discussion on who controls
>Free Software development process. I thought that
>three  distinct ideas were intermixed, when they
>should not have been. I am writing out my thoughts on
>the ideas.
>
>i) Freedom
>    Free software is all about Freedom, and nobody can
>dictate what you can and cannot do with such software.
>In other words nobody has control (`cracy`) over
>anybody else.
>  With regard to the linux kernel it was written that
>"Linus  Torvalds controls  the  kernel development
>process."
>
>That is not true Linus only controls his own tree, he
>cannot control anybody else's tree. Anybody and
>everybody can have their own kernel tree and kernel
>development process.
>
>Also he does not have a road map of where the kernel
>is going, and in that sense where Linux kernel goes is
>more of a collaborative effort than a form of `cracy`
>
>
>ii) Merit
>     I think that Linus tree has more merit in the
>sense that it fits the needs of various people, that
>any other tree I have a hope of building myself.
>
>     It has been written on this list that
>"Linus Torvalds has much more influence in the future
>direction of Linux than I have."
>
>     I am entirely in agreement with the idea of his
>having an influence on the kernel.
>    Altough his influence comes from the merit of his
>ideas, he still does not have control, and if some of
>his ideas do not have merit they must be discarded.
>
>iii) Control
>     I am not a believer in control (coercion),
>whatever disguised form it might take.
>
>     It has been written on this list that
>"Generally open source software is a meritocracy -
>the "best choice" is purely based on a meritocracy.
>meritocracy is how all of this functions."
>
>    I think that we must base our decisions on merit,
>however the fact that a persons ideas have merit
>should not mean that the person gains some form of
>control. `Cracy` can be and should be seperated out
>from merit.
>
>    I think free software is about being able to
>recognize merit in each other and therefore build a
>better society, while retaining freedom. i.e. without
>giving up freedom, and without giving control to
>others.
>
>Thanks
>Krishna
>
>
>=====
>To Reflect, to Inspire and to Empower
>http://www.employees.org/~krishnap/
>
>
>
>
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>End of Fsf-friends Digest, Vol 12, Issue 31
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