21 Feb
2006
21 Feb
'06
4:44 p.m.
On Tuesday 21 Feb 2006 20:12, Dave Robillard wrote:
On Tue, 2006-21-02 at 15:05 +0000, Chris Cannam
wrote:
No, the fact of people having been put out of work is not itself a
victory for anyone.
If my free software work puts a company or its
developers out of
work, then that's a problem for my conscience. It's not a victory
for free software.
Yes it is. The world of Free Software (basically the "public
domain"
for the sake of argument) has been improved, and the world of
computer users in general is better off.
Sure -- you'd certainly hope that good things are also a consequence of
the work, and they go on the other side of the ledger.
If someone loses their job because their product was
replaced with a
superior alternative, well... this is how markets are _supposed_ to
work.
I'm not in the market. I'm not competing. Because I'm not competing,
someone else's failure is not a success for me.
Chris