On Wed, Dec 05, 2001 at 12:23:00AM +0100, Lionel Elie Mamane wrote: > On Wed, Dec 05, 2001 at 12:10:29AM +0100, Joost van Baal wrote: > > I don't think SuSE is there to saveguard the "soul of the GNU". > > This doesn't mean their corrupting the message is a good thing. Sorry for interrupting this discussion again. We got an idea of a better world. One where people have a life free from arbitrary restrictions put onto them by someone who provides something they want to have. Or. less theoretical, a life where people don't have to worry a lot to make their living and a life where important key technologies are nor controlled by a few (untrustworthy) companies. That's the idea. If you look at it from a software perspective, this will lead to some approach with people sharing thoughts, ideas and, thus, software. If you look at reality, people, unfortunately, have to woory a lot about how to get along in their lige, even in the rich western countries, and most of them don't even get to the point to think aout hte ideal there is. How do you spread the ideal best? By just telling the ideas you have very clearly? By telling it in a way people can understand? By adapting their way of thinking and argueing within their system? By using their system to be successful in order to prove the superiority? By using their system to get stronger and stronger until we win? I just wonder where "corrupting the message" starts? You're not gonna tell me that it's about yes or not being able to make money from the work of others, are you? It's about the direction to go! Do we want to reach the majority of people? Evebn if they might not be able to grasp the full message? Do we want to give them a way to help us? Or do we exclude them, restricting us to elitarian circle of people who can shift their way of thinking far enough away from the current mainstream? I think both is necessary, and that's why I both appreciate the existence and the approach of Debian and SuSE. I do not think that one approach would be successful. Either you offer strange compormises to thos who have quite sone way behind them already or you are never able to reach people beyond a small circle. Just my two philosophical cents. PS: Bundling commercial software with whatever strange license with a distro is indeed something to be careful about. This is indeed much more serious than the YaST license discussion ... Regards,
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