Re: [ox-en] Re: Business opportuities based on Free Software
- From: "Franz Nahrada" <f.nahrada reflex.at>
- Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 08:37:06 +0200
crox iac-research.ch (Christoph Reuss) Donnerstag, 18. Mai 2006 at 1:06
Uhr [PHONE NUMBER REMOVED] wrote:
IBM and SUN are _hard_ware manufacturers. Only when they start selling
Free Hardware can we say that we won. But they're far from it! On the
contrary, the hardware industry is trying to privatize/proprietarize
the Internet (abolishing "Network Neutrality"), and this would also
potentially strangle Free Software.
I would rather say there are factions in the industries arguing about
strategic directions. The best case that can be made is to show that a
free and neutral internet provides more even more business opportunities
than a monopolized and privatized one.
And why do you say that "FLOSS would be the hobby of an esoteric circle of
technicians" without IBM and SUN? Isn't Linux supposed to beat Windoze on
the basis of superior quality --this is independent from IBM and SUN--,
and
isn't FS supposed to be programmed by leisure-time volunteer programmers?
(as opposed to hired full-time programmers at IBM and SUN)
"supposed to"....that sounds a bit idealistic, doesn't it? No, I never
bought into this part of the oekonux belief system because I think these
things are only partly true. My understanding of quality is also
useability and not simply reliability, and here at certain points there is
a long way to go. Believe me, more than once I tried to introduce Linux
into my daily life, but that lead to obstacles and dead ends.
And concerning the leisure time - programming, I think we see a decline of
peoples abilities to devote their leisure time to any productive activity
as a consequence of massive layoffs and intensification of labor. Why
should programmers be free of the normal condition of life in a
capitalistic society?
I even think the importance of business-driven support for communities is
on the rise. Businesses do it out of their own interests, but that does
not keep them sometimes from doing things right and doing the right things.
on openbusiness.cc
This site happens to be sponsored by George Soros, who also happens to
want to weaken/downsize the state, however he obviously isn't nearly an
anti-capitalist. Soros "opens" (whole countries) to plunder, not to
liberate. His "way out of the vicious circle between state and capital"
is to replace it by an even more vicious circle between big investors
and capital. Weakening the state also weakens democratic accountability
but not capitalism. In the end, even water is privatized, as are
previously public lands. Then how do you practice Free Agriculture?
On one side you recognize the dilemma that the material base of the state
is dwindling; on the other side you seek refuge in it. That is OK if we
start connecting the remnants of politics to a maturing civil society
which is increasingly enabled to manage infrastructures and the public
good. We will se where the Soros-funded efforts end, in the meantime I see
they are creating their own dynamics and also struggling for
accountability. Lets observe them and see if they are enabling or
disabling factors on the freedom of people!
Franz
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