18 Dec
2005
18 Dec
'05
8:53 a.m.
(I, Jim Battle, wrote this concerning complaints about free software):
>And yet you complain about it. You say
judgementally that if *you*
>had written the program, the you'd certainly release the source code.
>That is great except you *haven't* spent the time to write the
>program. So until you go and do it, you are just posturing.
der Mouse wrote:
I've written a lot of software, and almost all of
it I have placed in
the public domain. (A little of it is owned by others, and even of
that, most is free, in both senses.)
But I haven't written anything directly comparable to the program under
discussion. So when I say that (while I don't go as far as Tony) your
stance has taken you down significantly in my eyes, am I too "just
posturing"?
First, I should say that I meant to reply to Tony directly. After my post
showed up on the list, I realized my mistake and sent an email to Tony saying
such, but I didn't post it to this list because I didn't want to needlessly spam
it again.
der Mouse, there are too many pronouns and not enough attribution for me to
answer with confidence as I'm not sure what you mean. If you are saying that
I've just lost stock with you because of my disagreement with Tony, then so be
it. But what that has to do with you writing software is a nonsequiter.
Since it is such a nonsequiter, maybe you thought you were replying to Dave. If
so, I still don't follow your reasoning. The complaint has nothing to do with
what Tony has done for the world (or in your hypothetical, what you have done).
Dave wrote a program and gave it away for free. If you don't like it, don't use
it and go write your own. Talking about what you would do if you had written it
is posturing, yes. Do it yourself or stop complaining.
Dave, for his own reasons, decided the time isn't right for him to release the
source code. Would we be better off if he just sat on it until that time?