[linux-audio-dev] New form of GPL licence that protects Linux from proprietary world [was: New powermacs?]

[Marc Lavallée]

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Le 22 Juin 2003 13:46, Ivica Bukvic a écrit :

> Again, please read what I've stated and then respond. I am not
> advocating the change of GPL, but creating a new derived license which
> simply ensures that the efforts of the open-source community primarily
> benefit (gasp!) us, the open-source community, not some company with
> monopolistic agenda, regardless how successful (Msft) or unsuccessful
> they are (Apple).

Guess what: your derived license would be incompatible with the GPL or any 
OSI license. You don't understand what free software is. Including free 
software within closed source software is wrong, but allowing free 
software to run on any platform is good, as long as the source code is 
released. The restrictions imposed by the GPL are meant to make sure that 
derived works are released with the source code. M$ and Apple always 
included free softwares in their operating systems, but they often 
(always in the case of M$) "forgot" to release the source code of their 
modifications. What they're doing is wrong, but the free software 
community would be stupid to play their game by restricting usage of free 
software to free operating systems.

> Being "elitist" towards outsiders who express even a mild interest in
> the Linux/oss community will repel them before they even get a chance
> to taste the good aspects of Linux.

Are you stating that I'm elitist because I use command line tools? I never 
agreed with gui users that believe their tools are easier and better for 
ordinary people. These tools are sometimes so complicated and badly 
designed that the only reasonable command to use is "quit". As much as 
you think they should use a gui because you believe they can't use 
anything else, I think ordinary people should use free command line tools 
because they can. Text is not elitist, and it's still the easiest and 
most powerful intellectual technology.

Have you ever tried to reduce a bunch of images (let's say 10000) with 
Photoshop? It's much easier and efficient with the ImageMagick command 
line tools. Am I elitist because I use a better (and free) tool which 
happens to be text based? I may be part of an elite, but I'm not 
requiring anybody to use the same free tools as me. Even M$ uses 
ImageMagick in their Office suite, but they charge a fortune to include 
this free tool in a closed source product. That's wrong, and that's why I 
believe ordinary people should learn to use free tools the "elite" way.

I don't care about Linux. I care about free software. I don't care if the 
Linux kernel runs on proprietary hardware, like I don't care if a free 
software runs on top of a proprietary OS. I'd much prefer that 
everything, from the silicon chip to the gui tools were made entirely 
free, but since I must choose, I prefer that free software be allowed to 
run on top of non-free software. The free software movement is not 
purist, it's trying to make this world better by rational and ethical 
means. Hopefully, at some point, most of the computing chain will be 
free, including the hardware.
- -- 
Marc
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