Re: Documentation Standards was Re: [ox-en] UserLinux
- From: "Benj. Mako Hill" <mako debian.org>
- Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 10:58:19 +0100
On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 04:13:40AM -0000, Niall Douglas wrote:
Anyone advocating software patents is making a severe error in
logical typing or they're just really ignorant.
Or they're being leaned on by those who profit most from software
patents.
Why is one type of knowledge worker considered uniquely different
than any and all other types of knowledge workers?
My point was that programmers seem to invest much more in the
opinions of elite programmers than correlates in other professions.
If some top violinist says that all music must be free, would a
sizeable minority of all musicians totally buy into that mantra?
As a programmer and a participant in the free software community for
over a decade, I heartily disagree. The majority of programmers are
not free software programmers and the reason people like free software
is not because they respect RMS as a programmer! Free software
programmers are *very* critical of RMS and the Linux kernel list has
seen a lot a talk about moving away from the GPL because of its
connection with RMS. RMS says invariant sections in documentation are
free and most free software programmers, after thinking about it for a
while, disagree.
How can you possibly enforce information scarcity in a world where
information can be copied for zero cost?
DRM? Trusted computing? The current problem is that everyone has
all-purpose, uncontrolled copy machines on their desks. There are lots
of people working hard to change this. They've not been successful so
far but it's going to go take more than optimism and a dedication to
reverse engineering if we're going to win this in the long term.
The free software revenue model simply outsources software production
to the third world. Bye bye jobs for western programmers.
Local support companies will remain eg; RedHat Europe's main purpose
is installation support. But as you'll note from RedHat Europe, its
employees don't do much programming - support is not programming.
Can you support these claims?
Regards,
Mako
--
Benjamin Mako Hill
mako debian.org
http://mako.yukidoke.org/