[linux-audio-dev] Re: [linux-audio-user] Free Software vs. Open Source: Where do*you* stand?

[Pete Bessman]

On Tue, 2006-02-21 at 11:06 +0100, David Kastrup wrote:

> Pete complains that maybe he has listened too much to Stallman.  I am
> afraid if he did, he did not understand too much.  Stallman is not a
> person who promises superior quality of free software: that would be
> the panacea of the "Open Software" camp.  Stallman says that he
> refuses to use non-free software for ethical reasons.

I know what he stands for, I just don't agree with it anymore.  I think
it's illogical, and I think my subconcious always rejected it, and as a
response to this psychological discomfort, I think I developed a knee-
jerk "sucks" response to proprietary software.

It's what psychologists call projection.  When confronted with a
shortcoming in yourself, you project that same shortcoming onto others
so you don't feel like it's totally yours to deal with.  You think OSS
has UI issues?  You should see windows!  You think dependency hell
sucks?  Well go check out DLL hell!  Etc.

Basically, after years of forcing myself to accept a dogma that, upon
closer inspection, I think is a bunch of baloney, I have a lot of poison
in my brain that I need to remove so that I can think clearly, calmly,
and rationally.  There are some ex-communists in the libertarian circles
in which I tread, and they have the same kind of problem WRT Marx and
communist ideology.  And current communists are engaging in projection
and the like on an awe-inspiring scale.

BTW, this isn't meant to equate OSS with communism.  I just want to
drive home the point that I did not misinterpret one iota of the
Stallman verse --- I'm just tossing it in the trash bin along with my
Torah.

-- 
Pete Bessman
http://gazuga.net
"So this baby seal walks into a club."