jacob@gore.com (Jacob Gore) (10/28/89)
I was born and raised in that country east of Finland (:-), and I am quite familiar with Socialism -- its theory, practice, history of its pioneers, pawns and victims, etc. I have seen first-hand the results of its application, and am now following, as much as possible, the Soviets' current half-assed attempts to fix it. I doubt if there are many people left who haven't realized that "Soviet economy" is an oxymoron. I think that Socialism is an unworkable economic system for any society larger than a small group of volunteers. (Any economic system will work for voluntary society, by definition.) So, if you think that all GNU supporters have rosy dreams about socialist societies, you're way off base. I like capitalism! (My mother is one!:-) I think that in today's world capitalism is a prerequisite to a healthy economy. What is needed is a competitive market, with opportunity (not *right* -- *opportunity*) to join in and succeed. Capitalism is a NECESSARY BUT NOT SUFFICIENT condition for a competetive market. Proof: monopolies are not inconsistent with capitalism, but they are inconsistent with a competitive market. (Socialism, on the other hand, is one huge monopoly.) Now, with this theorizing out of the way, let's misc.discuss some gnu. I think software tends to cost too much. Not because it doesn't reflect the expense of its development -- I think it generally does. I think that it tends to cost too much to develop (I'm including all stages/cycles/phases of the development, not just the design and coding). I think this happens because there is very little reuse of the effort going on. I think it makes more economic sense to produce software in the cooperative manner that FSF encourages than to redevelop everything over and over again. Sure, out of this redevelopment we often get innovations, but I'd rather have those innovations without the waste of doing what has already been done. I consider GNU a wonderful experiment that will demonstrate, by giving companies some incentive to TRY such a way of doing business, whether or not it is economically better. Only time will tell, but I'm betting on those companies that will participate in the experiment: they will have lower development expenses, and thus the ability to significantly undercut their competitor's prices, and still make a profit. ...And, as this happens, more and more of those less efficient competitors will try to sue, legislate or otherwise bully away their trouble. So much for my "economic theory" of software... Now, what did I call this article... oh yeah :-). There have been many silly things said about FSF and its "socialist" policies. There was that claim that FSF was rewarding their followers with good software, just as governments such as the Soviet government (meaning, probably, the CK of the Party, not the Supreme Soviet, which is still to show itself as a body with teeth) reward their party members. Well, the Soviet government does not produce anything, so whatever it has to give to the elite it has to take away from somebody else. I have not seen any Extraordinary Comissions from FSF confiscating software from people and giving it (after retaining most of it for themselves) to their followers -- have you? FSF is not trying to force anybody into anything. It simply says: if you benefit from our software, let others benefit from yours. What's the big deal? If you don't want to share your software, don't share your software -- start from scratch, find another source of software to start from, whatever. Do whatever you would have done if there was no GNU project. FSF is not trying to outlaw non-copylefted software! There is simply no need. The political activity of FSF has been directed against companies that are trying to become monopolies. If that is being a Socialist, T. Roosevelt was the most well-known of them all. (A true Socialist would not only allow copyrighting of "look and feel", he would nationalize the look and feel of everything:-) So stop calling us socialists. To me, that's insulting. If you must use a tag for your opponents (yeah, yeah, like "software hoarders"...), at least choose a less ludicrous one. Jacob -- Jacob Gore Jacob@Gore.Com boulder!gore!jacob
rfg@ics.uci.edu (Ron Guilmette) (10/29/89)
In article <970005@gore.com> jacob@gore.com (Jacob Gore) writes: > >So, if you think that all GNU supporters have rosy dreams about socialist >societies, you're way off base. Hummm.. If that is true then perhaps you could explain something to me that I've been wondering about for quite some time now. Why did Stallman name the GNU preprocessor (source file) cccp.c? I always thought that this was like secret little hint or something. :-) >I like capitalism! (My mother is one!:-) Your mother is a capitalism???? How bizzare. It must have been hard on you growing up with a capitalism for a mother! :-) // rfg
nate@hobbes.intel.com (Nate Hess) (10/29/89)
In article <970005@gore.com>, jacob@gore (Jacob Gore) writes: >FSF is not trying to force anybody into anything. It simply says: if you >benefit from our software, let others benefit from yours. What's the big >deal? If you don't want to share your software, don't share your software >-- start from scratch, find another source of software to start from, >whatever. Do whatever you would have done if there was no GNU project. In fact, you've understated the FSF's position on what can be done with their software. You can copy an FSF program, modify the heck out of it, and use it to your heart's content, without even showing your grandmother the source. If, however, you distribute a copy of the binary of your modified FSF program, then you must make complete, machine-readable sources available, as well. RMS and the FSF would like to see source code for additions and modifications to their programs, but they don't require it, as long as you don't distribute binaries of the FSF-derived program. --woodstock -- "What I like is when you're looking and thinking and looking and thinking...and suddenly you wake up." - Hobbes woodstock@hobbes.intel.com ...!{decwrl|hplabs!oliveb}!intelca!mipos3!nate