On 03/29/2015 03:54 PM, Jason McVetta wrote:
That sorry scene struck me as more of a public stoning. A reminder to all who were watching, that a life's work contributing to the good of humanity (i.e. Free Software) means nothing.
You're not thinking of it from their perspective. Everyone on this list understand the value of Free Software. That's because everyone on this list understand software at all. It's very, very important to understand that most people... just... don't. For 90% of the entire population of the entire planet -- even while their lives are literally being run by computers -- a computer is absolutely nothing more than a Magic Box of Lights. Nothing. More. Which means that "source code" -- and thus "Free Software" -- is literally meaningless to them. There's a prerequisite for the Four Freedoms that goes unmentioned, because it's just assumed as obvious to almost everyone who ever discusses them. -- The KNOWLEDGE of how to program, and what a computer program actually is And without that knowledge, it doesn't matter if you can run a program as you want to -- not if there's no difference between double-clicking on a .exe file or a .app, and on a .docx. It doesn't matter if somewhere, at some website on some webserver, the source code is available for access -- sometimes even commented! -- to be studied and manipulated, if it is literally in some incomprehensible foreign language. To a person who can't read, a book can only provide a source of fuel. To a person who can't read code, source code doesn't even provide that. So building from there, here is what happened, from their perspective: " A wizard -- a great wizard, apparently, whom a lot of wizards like and respect, but whom I don't know a single thing he did, especially not one that I use -- was a jerk. Was enough of a jerk that he was literally willing to spend money to hurt me and my friends. And if I can hurt him by yelling loud enough? Y'know what, I will. " Those people care. About themselves, about their friends, about other people -- about freedom, and standing up to corporations who put out stumbling blocks, and about being able to be and do what you want, not what someone wants you to do. They *care*. But they don't understand code. They barely know that code even *exists*. And so of course they don't care about that. It's literally impossible to care about something you don't know a thing about. So this will happen again. And again, and again, because whenever some corporation can pit two groups together and, and know that there can never be a common understanding on both sides, and guess which side will win, they will. They will again, and again, and again, and they won't care how many projects or people they destroy. And as long as we let people sit around in ignorance of what software even *is*, *WE ARE LETTING THEM DO IT.* The only way to stop an illiterate person from burning their books is to teach them to read. Teach them to read, and teach them to learn, and then there won't be fiascos any more. Just discussions.