[Fsf-friends] Continuation....of Basics......

Sriharsha Vedurmudi sriharsha.v@redpinesignals.com
Fri Sep 24 12:16:31 IST 2004


Joe Steeve wrote:

>Free software is not developed by careless developers. It is developed by
>volunteers. Volunteers who love to program. Who love computing. These
>volunteers cannot be compared with regular programmers employed in software
>production houses. Here, the programmers are usually forced to do something
>that they probably dont like. One of my friends working in Infosys hates
>computers (He is a EEE engineer).
>
Ok, that clarifies my point.

> He is programming today for a living.
>Please note., there is a difference in programming for a living and
>programming for passion. A passionate programmer puts his best effort to
>make beautiful programs. He knows the trade very well. 
>  
>
Exactly. A person who loves programming and passionate about it always 
strives for improving it and (I know) really does not mind sharing 
his/her software unrestricted in any form with his/her like-minded friends.

>Have you ever used gcc + binutils + gdb. Do you think the people who
>programmed that are "careless developers??". Please look into the autotools
>(Autoconf + Automake + Libtool). That is not some mediocre joke. It is so
>professional that even propreitary production houses shamelessly use it. Can
>someone think of having a network of GUIs?? Did a "careless developer" think
>of making the X so powerful that I can actually open two GUI applications on
>a remote machine whose display comes on my terminal? Did a "careless
>developer" develop Guile.. I dont see even one single "heavily funded"
>proprietary software development house bring out something so smart and neat
>as Guile. 
>  
>
Looks like I am facing fury, I did not intend to offend anyone. All I 
said was there is a fairly good chance of computer-illiterate people 
getting cheated by malicious people.

Coming to the concept of Digital Signatures, I have not seen for myself 
nor seen my administrators bother anything about digital 
certificates/signatures.
"Find a link, download, install and use...." is a very common concept 
among the vast majority of non-software companies who are interested in 
using a popular software, if it is free. Now, dont you think that 
cheating such a company is easy? Honestly, one can mutate a program 
(atleast the C source code is in plain ASCII?) and then take the CD to 
that company saying he/she has downloaded that software and install it 
(and the company feels happy that their time and money is saved from 
getting used for downloading it, esp. if its large).
The above is just one possibility (and I say so after having witnessed 
disasters caused by similar methods). My point here was that apart from 
promoting free software, it is also our responsibility (the free 
software community) to see that the public (i again mean the non 
computer literate) are not cheated by such people, therby creating a 
false notion about free software (which in-turn reduces the support for 
the struggle)

I wrote all the above based on my personal observations and mindset of 
many people in business (non-computer-related) that I came across. I am 
very much in support of Free Software. I have just started working with 
gcc toolchain (after an initial port of it to one of our companies 
custom processor architecture) and it truely represents the Spirit of 
Programming. Honestly, I accept, I've never seen such beautiful software 
ever released from the software mafia (proprietory companies).

I do hope to be of some help to the community that I love (even if my 
comments, out of ignorance sometimes, seem to raise brows of the guru's).

Cheers and Wishes,
Harsha.



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