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Date:      Thu, 27 Feb 2003 13:06:26 -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:  <200302271306.26357.DavidJohnson@Siemens.com>
In-Reply-To: <3E5E70F8.85AE964@mindspring.com>
References:  <200302261224.54884.DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> <200302271119.17369.DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> <3E5E70F8.85AE964@mindspring.com>

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On Thursday 27 February 2003 12:11 pm, Terry Lambert wrote:

> > "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".
>
> He means free as in "has been liberated".  "Liberated" and
> "Libertine" and similar words derived from that root have bad
> political connotations in the U.S., which is why he had to redefine
> the word "Free" in order to avoid using the technically correct
> words.  8-).

It's a form of "GNUspeak". If you speak enough GNUspeak, you start to 
believe what you're saying. For instance, "liberating software". A good 
analogy is an injured fox in a foxtrap. The BSD camp will "liberate" 
the fox by releasing it from the trap and letting it go. The GNU camp 
will "liberate" the fox by releasing it from the trap, then cutting its 
legs off so it can't get trapped again.

> The problem with that statement is "according to their calculus",
> as opposed to "according to a mutually agreed upon calculus".

Such is the problem with any philosophy that seeks to maximize the 
greater good.

> Actually, it's a lot simpler than that.  One side believes people
> will do what's right, because it is right, and the other side
> believe people will not do what's right unless their feet are held
> over a fire.  GPL advocates are cynical about other people being
> willing to "do the right thing", without having to be coerced.  8^p.

Let's see, GNU expects people to steal, so people end up "stealing" from 
GNU. On the other hand, BSD expects people to give back without being 
asked, so people end up giving back to BSD without being asked. The 
best example of this is Steve Jobs. He "stole" GCC by writing a 
Objective C front end for it, and gave back to BSD in the form of 
Darwin and numerous bug fixes and improvements.

David

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