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Date:      Wed, 20 May 1998 20:05:08 +0000
From:      "Frank Pawlak" <fpawlak@execpc.com>
To:        "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com>, "Frank Pawlak" <fpawlak@execpc.com>
Cc:        Amancio Hasty <hasty@rah.star-gate.com>, Gary Kline <kline@tera.tera.com>, freebsd@atipa.com (Atipa), freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Why we should support Microsoft...
Message-ID:  <980520200508.ZM1604@darkstar.connect.com>
In-Reply-To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> "Re: Why we should support Microsoft..." (May 20, 11:53am)
References:  <21093.895690380@time.cdrom.com>

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On May 20, 11:53am, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:
> Subject: Re: Why we should support Microsoft...
> > and market power.  And don't make the case that that is IBM's fault
totally,
> > when M$ closed off the API's for Win 32.  Everything they produce is
> > proprietary.  Yet you wish to lament your lack of freedom.  Sorry Jordan,
as
> > much as I admire what you and the FreeBSD team are doing and stand for, you
> > can't have you bread buttered on both sides.  Eventually you number turns
up
> > on the hit list.
>
> Wait a second, since when have I been lamenting that Microsoft was
> infringing my freedoms?  I also rather strenuously object to your
> accusation that I'm wanting my "bread buttered on both sides" since
> that's specifically the mindset I've been arguing AGAINST for the last
> 4 rounds here or so.  Either you have misunderstood me rather
> drastically or aren't actually reading what I've been saying with
> anything approaching the proper care.

Your objection is well taken, and I don't think that there is any
misunderstanding on my part.
>
> To put it another way, I don't really _care_ whether my number comes
> up on any "Microsoft hit list" since I've been operating under the
> continual assumption that such a thing would happen anyway, either
> directly or indirectly as the result of some larger campaign on their
> part.  All I want is the freedom to fight my own battles, however
> doomed or outnumbered my side may be, and any help from the government
> is help that I don't need AT ALL thank you very much!  The government
> already has enough guns pointed at my head without me giving them
> another one to "protect" me with.

This is your lament.  You speak with mixed voices.  First you favor to fight
your own battles, as do I.  Then you say you don't care whether M$ has you on
the hit list.  I have seen numerous post where you expressed the joy and
rewards received from writting free software, so don't accuse me of not
carefully reading you writing.  Where will those rewards come from once the
free software ideal is crushed.  Yes perhaps there will always be some place
where free software is used, but don't try to convince me that a person with
your passion being involved with the FreeBSD project won't feel a big loss if
M$ or anyone else sould crush the project.  That my friend is impingment on you
freedom, and you tell me you don't give a damn.  In the end it is how freedom
is defined.

>
> FWIW, I don't believe in anti-trust laws either.  If it's in mankind's
> nature to create and support robber barons in their pillaging then
> mankind deserves whatever it gets, period.

This is a case of the powerful and strong robbing the weak and infirm of their
freedom.  Robber capitalism is no different than any totalitarian system, where
the bullies dictate to the masses.  History is filled with the sagas of the
masses rising up to overthrough this stuff, with the general result of a
dictatorial system that is more oppressive.  This is just begger thy brother so
the strong and powerful get their wishes.  Self infliction, that's tunnel
vision.  So either you have your freedom or you don't.  The situation where
some are free and others are not is a freedom charade.  It's one way or the
other.  Either everyone is free or no one is.  I repeat, you can't have your
bread buttered on both sides.

>This whole legal system
> for regulating our own worst impulses has always struck me as
> equivalent to hitting oneself repeatedly with a hammer and then
> pointing to the first-aid kit every time someone comes up and asks you
> what you're doing about this weird compulsion you have to harm
> yourself.  It's not solving the fundamental problem and it's not going
> to get any closer to solving the fundamental problem as you make it
> more and more complex and intrusive.  Maybe that makes me an
> Anarchist.  I don't really mind. :-)

I will not dispute you last statement.  You wear it like a badge.

Frank

>
> - Jordan
>-- End of excerpt from Jordan K. Hubbard



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