19 May
2009
19 May
'09
1:50 p.m.
On Tue, 2009-05-19 at 10:37 +0200, Fons Adriaensen wrote:
Someone sets up a firm that provides a free service:
they enhance your life by removing things from your
home and disposing of them.
One day I return home and find some things have been
removed.
I go the manager of the free service and tell him:
- Listen, I don't want you to enter my home and
remove things uninvited.
- But then I can't do my job !
- So you are thieves ?
- No, no, no, we just provide a free service
that enhances your life.
I have to say, I think this is really out of line, Fons. Implying free
software developers are theives because they've changed something and
you don't like it is quite extraordinary.
I think a better analogy would be like so:
Someone sets up a firm that provides and maintains free furniture,
appliances, plumbing and electricity for anybody's home.
One day, you come home and find half of your radiators don't work
because someone has started upgrading the plumbing and hasn't finished
yet.
You go to the manager of the free service and tell him:
- Listen, I don't want you to stop the radiators in my house from
working.
- That's fine, you're entirely free to install your own plumbing, or fix
the plumbing we've installed for you.
- I don't want to, you should do it for me and do it right dammit!