[ox-en] Fwd: Re: Transition into the GPL society
- From: Thomas Uwe Gruettmueller <sloyment gmx.net>
- Date: Sun, 8 Oct 2000 21:55:20 +0200
Hi!
I have a question to our English native speakers.
I know that when someone wants to buy a book in a book store in an English
spoken country, he usually sais: "I'd like to buy a copy of [title] by
[author]", whereas in German, you say: "I'd like to buy the book [title] from
[author]". In this context, "the book" neither refers to the original
manuscript nor to the ordered copy, but to the information printed inside. If
someone wants to get two copies, he would propably say, "I'd like to buy the
book twice."
I think with software, this is exactly the same.
A few days ago, I bought Debian 2.2. It is a box sold by LinuxLand containing
CDs manufactered by optical media production and a textbook printed by
Media-Print.
I stated on the Oekonux list that this may be a good example of what I call a
"{Free {material product}}", because design and manufacturing are seperate,
and the "construction papers" (meaning the ISO CD images and the PS file of
the textbook, including their source code) are Free software. So, creating a
Free car would mean to Free or even to copyleft the construction papers of a
car.
However, nobody seems to understand me (see below). Could it be that this is
a philosophical problem that only exists in the German language?
Bye,
Thomas
}:o{#
- - - 8< - - -
Re: Transition into the GPL society
LutzH, 2000-10-06
translated (No guaranty!!! ;o) ) by T.G.
On Thu, Oct 05, 2000 at 06:05:50PM [PHONE NUMBER REMOVED], Thomas Uwe Gruettmueller wrote:
On Tue, 03 Okt 2000, Stefan Merten wrote:
I think that this is an important step towards the GPL society: The
construction papers, principles, documentation, interfaces of a product
are Free, the manufacturing however will still be done in a capitalist
way and has to be paid for. This will be similar to the CDs of a
Gnu/Linux distribution, ...
This is not just similar -- this is it exactly! At least with Debian
Gnu/Linux: Debian designs the CDs and provides everybody with the images.
Then everyone who wants to can manufacture that stuff (e.g. Linuxland).
No, that is not exactly the same. You see, the primary main objective of
Debian-GNU/Linux is not to manufacture CD-ROMs on the basis of ISO-Images,
but to install a Debian-GNU/Linux-system on a target computer. Therefore, it
does not matter though it is done via CD-ROMs, NFS or installation via boot
disk and FTP. That the Debian people put together their packages as ISO
images is just one way to achieve this goal.
Of course, it thus makes a difference, though I just free the *construction
papers* or the whole *product*. In the first case, still a third party has to
join, who manufacture the actual product. In the second case, the one of
Debian-GNU/Linux, the product, namely the data, is already manufactured
towards its final state. I just have to get it, no matter how.
... which can also be bought. The only difference will be that you cannot
leech the Free OSCar from the Internet.
Oh, of course you can. However, without the necessary perephery, you can
only view it on screen, but you cannot "burn" or print it, or whatever this
is called with cars...
Right. That's the difference. As long as I have network access, I do not need
*any* additional perephery, not even a CD "burner", to install
Debian-GNU/Linux. I would not succeed trying this with OSCar.
[...]
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