[FSF-India] NEWS: Global software promoter to open India chapter in Kerala

[Radhakrishnan C V]

On Wed, 18 Jul 2001 at 07:23, Krishnan wrote:

   On Tue, 17 Jul 2001, Frederick Noronha wrote:

   > Global software promoter to open India chapter in Kerala

   <snip>

   This description of FSF is widely off the mark. Makes it look
   like just a run-off-the-mill software company. What should
   have been highlighted is the FSF's ideal of upholding the
   software user's *freedom*.

I agree with you.

   How do we repair the damage>

Reproduced below is a post that appeared in the FreeDevelopers.Net
mailing list which might be relevant in this occasion though the
post is mainly concerned with Free Software and Open Source
movements:

<quote>

>From wolfgang@contre.com Wed Jul 18 09:12:34 2001
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 22:13:42 -0400
From: Wolfgang Sourdeau <wolfgang@contre.com>
Reply-To: FreeDevelopers@topica.com
To: FreeDevelopers@topica.com
Subject: Re: [Article] Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS)?
    Look at the Num

>>>>> "Ricardo" == Ricardo Andere de Mello <- Quilombo Digital
>>>>> <gandhi@quilombodigital.org>> writes:

> I think this is a good link.
> http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html

While this kind of article is interesting and can be valuable, there
is something that need to constantly pointed out because so much
people forget it (or don't realize it): free software is not about
writing good quality software, it is foremost a humanist philosophy
that could be applied to other categories.

The ideology of Free Software leads to better software in general as
a consequence of human nature (to always make things better) and as
the consequence of permitting human talent to be shared in a far
easier and efficient way.

This is where the difference between the Open Source philosophy and
the Free Software philosophy lies. The Open Source only notices that
Free Software is an efficient way of writing quality software, but
it never poses the idea of sharing and of working together as a
moral value. The Free Software philosophy does and software is just
the concrete "platform" by which this philosophy exists.

Chances are that the Open Source movement couldn't have been started
if the Free Software movement didn't exist previously. But Free
Software exists on its own, because it is not based on any
particular logic other than the one of social human mechanisms and
feelings.

If Richard Stallman was a singer rather than a programmer, I am sure
we would have the Free Happing Singing movement instead. Well, maybe
he would just have written songs and have had singers to sing
them... But that is another story.


Wolfgang

</quote>


-- 
Radhakrishnan