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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.