Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 11:19:17 -0800 From: Johnson David <DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> Cc: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: O'Reilly apologizes for calling BSD "Free Software" Message-ID: <200302271119.17369.DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> In-Reply-To: <3E5E289D.500C9704@mindspring.com> References: <200302261224.54884.DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> <86bs0yne2d.fsf@vanilla.zzz> <3E5E289D.500C9704@mindspring.com>
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On Thursday 27 February 2003 07:02 am, Terry Lambert wrote: > > Excuse me. But isn't FreeBSD 'Free Software'? Or, I misunderstood > > the story? > > He means "Free" as in "Libertine", not "Free" as in "Free". "Libertine" is not really the right word, except in the most cynical sense. Here's a slightly improved statement: He means "Free" as in "regulated", not "Free" as in "unrestricted". It's a fundamental split between basic philosophies of freedom. One side is concerned with the "greater good" or "public weal", and sees no problems with eliminating some freedoms while promoting others, so long as the total freedom is maximized according to their calculus. The other side is concerned with individuals, and sees any reduction of an individuals freedoms to be unacceptable. I hesitate to assign any political labels to the two sides, since there are radical anarchists, extreme authoritarians, and everyone in between, in both camps. It gets interesting in terms of software, because distributing software under both models is a volunteer cooperation. Some members of the second side may indeed wish to maximise the greater good and public weal, but do not see distributing software, as an appropriate vehicle. And some members of the first side may find genuine distaste at regulating the freedoms of individuals, but consider the individual free to choose the authors distribution terms or not. David To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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