[Fsf-india] [Sorry a bit long] Government, Freedom, People and other things.

[Arun M]

Disclaimer : What is written in this mail may or may not reflect 
the opinion of any organisation with which i am associated.
So please dont link them with out verifying with concerned persons. 
Also I request not to personalize any comments made here. 


We had a lot of discussion regarding Ethics of Freesoftware user,
IT Policy so on and so forth. I tried to stay away from all these
discussion. 
 
 - I was sure that they were not going to help the development of 
   Free Software Movement. 
 - Emotion can destroy your ability to think rationally.
 - Worried that my comments would be taken out of context and
   misinterpreted, and didnt wanted to go on clarifying them.

Today after going through several mails I had in queue i felt 
i should speak up (My words dont value much, just consider it as ideas of 
a freesoftware enthusiast nothing more). 

Let me start with the latest event.


IT Policy, Kerala Government and Free Software.
----------------------------------------------

Government of Kerala is saying use Free Software because it costs less.
Is it good for free software ? 

    " No its not, the government should be bashed, who ever worked 
      get 'Free Software' in the policy document did some bad job.
      It is a bad step for the Free Software Movement"

     * Disclaimer again, I wasnt involved with any discussion with Government.

Yes, its not how we (people in FreeSoftwareMovement) wanted it to be.
But it is not *nothing*, may be it's first time in India government
asking to support Free Software in policy document. If you are
saying its *nothing* you are making fun of a lot of people who worked for 
getting the government support free software.

    " Why isnt it more *natural* for government to support Free Software 
      for freedom ? "

Yes, agreed unlike corporate and individuals government should have a
long term vision. Its not reflected in the document. We should try to get
the government think of those larger issues. 

Hope all of you know the story of 7 blinds going to see Elephant.
Every one saw the Elephant different way. Let us accept the fact that it
is very difficult to see one issue from all angle. What we see depend on
where we stand. The government of kerala is in a bad financial condition 
and there is nothing *unnatural* in the fact that for them Free Software
means lesser cost.


Open Source is *Evil* Articles and Free Software Movement.
----------------------------------------------------------

We had a lot of Open Source worser than proprietory articles in list.

Organisations working for a philosophical causes are susceptible to
getting converted into Fundamentalist group. As and if the movement go forward 
more people will come who are learned about the issue from the outer sphere 
alone. They wont try to understand the real issues. These people will try
what ever they can to prove they are standing as *some thing more* for 
the cause. 'Who is *Stronger* free software follower'. 

My humble opinion is, it is not going to help Free Software Movement.

New Class of Free Software - Untouchables
-----------------------------------------

Some times the attitude of people make others (at least me) feel that
we are creating a new class of people who are untouchable for those 
who believe in the Church of GNU Emacs. Raju Mathur mail speaks of this

<snip>
- Security of investment -- if someone shoots Gill Bates and the whole
MS board tomorrow, will MS survive?  If Linus Torvalds and Alan Cox,
Linux definitely will (yes, I still call it Linux, so sue me).
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
</snip>

Read this together with the fact that he is distributing some softwares
under Free Software Licenses and he calls them "Free Software".

I dont agree with Raju on all philosophical issues related to free
software. Same with several other people with whom i am associated.
But I will say the contributions of people like Raju is more valuable than 
that of a Free Software Fundamentalist (I know its highly relative).
(For some people i am a Free Software Fundamentalist)

We need more Free Software not more Open Source is evil cries or
something similar. 

Let us work for more Free Software. 
Freesoftware to more people. 


Happy Hacking,
Arun