"companies like Microsoft try to limit people's freedoms."
According to the author this is bad. I agree with this point for the purpose of this discussion.
The author tries to limit people's freedoms.
The author tells me I should try to limit people's freedoms.
For the sake of their freedoms.
P.s. I'm not familiar with the author or their software.
P.p.s. Luckily there's less need to port Linux software to Windows these days since Microsoft has partnered with Ubuntu to create a Windows Subsystem for Linux which is capable of running an Ubuntu user space and bash shell directly on Windows.
No, the author doesn't try to limit anyone's freedom, he only asks people to understand him and to work against proprietary platforms, not prohibits them to do anything.
He just says that he won't do it and explains why you should not either. That's hardly limiting you from doing anything.
Even though I don't agree with his position (I fit in the "I don't care if it works on Windows or not, if you care pull requests are always welcome" camp), it's a reasonable one to have.
Of course he does. By choosing a GNU license he explicitly limits the choices available to anyone that might make use of his software in their own software projects. That's the whole point of the license to limit the freedoms of developers in favor of users... his favored group. Even then, his plea is for developers to willingly limit user choice in regard to proprietary software. Sure, his license doesn't legally prevent this, but he's asking developers to de facto limit user freedom to choose their operating environment in favor of his approved systems.
If he were merely trying to convince users to move to Libre systems while making no plea to the developers that might otherwise enable users to choose against his wishes, you might have a point: but that's not his goal.
Yes, I agree. Also, this text is quite old and isn't all that representative of his blog either. The blog takes controversial positions, but is entertaining at the same time. It's sort of like a yellow-press newspaper for CCC hackers, if that makes sense.
Looking at the list of code that this person created, I don't think it's wanted on Windows anyway. It's just a bunch of low-level utils that are already built-in to Windows or have better third-party alternatives.
If this guy had built something good like VLC media player - nobody would have listened to him and it would have been forked, ported and his version would have been forgotten by now.
(Oh and I bet more than half of his crummy apps will easily run on Apple's OS and Apple is arguably worse than Microsoft had ever been.)
I always find this sort of argument in the name of freedom interesting and perhaps a bit disingenuous. The GNU activists (for lack of a better generalization) actually do not argue for more freedom of choice, but rather only for who should have that freedom: whether freedom of choice rightfully belongs to the developer or the user, the producer or the consumer. By arguing chiefly for "greater freedom" they avoid the issue of why they consider the producer of a product as deserving a lesser moral latitude than a consumer of the product; their appeal becomes not a rational appeal for why, on moral grounds, a developer should be less free and instead make an emotional appeal to the users that they are entitled to the product as a moral imperative. It seems to me, the GNU activist is not making an argument about freedom whatever, but is essentially arguing for an application of altruism to the world of software development.
I think the author of the article makes that alternative intent of the movement clear in that they are uncomfortable with the freedom actually offered by GNU licenses. If even as a user of GNU software you somehow can perceived as helping a non-Libre developer (no matter how indirectly) you are condemnable morally by the reckoning of the author. I find this consistent with my assertion that the argument is not one of greater freedom, but philosophically an altruistic one.
This article seems polite enough. The author gives some rational reasons, and at least marks the opinion parts with "I feel" type qualifications.
Why is everyone just picking apart the logic behind this? It makes me (a Linux user) think that Windows-ecosystem people feel entitled to a port of all software, "because Windows".
> It makes me (a Linux user) think that Windows-ecosystem people feel entitled to a port of all software, "because Windows".
Actually it's quite the contrary, when you maintain a Windows-only piece of software you get constantly bugged by the few dozen Linux / OS X users.
I mean, your OS selection happened because "the many benefits your favorite OS brings you over Windows are way more important than not having software".
If you really want to run Windows software, why not install Wine, VirtualBox, or... Windows?
Hardly. This attitude is very rare among FOSS devs, the more common one being "I don't care if it works on Windows or not, as I don't use it; if you are willing to make it work on Windows with in way that does not make codebase suck too much for the rest of the world, go ahead, I accept patches".
Well, I consider it perfectly fine and in line of what one can expect from FOSS. I develop what I want to develop, and you develop what you want. If we can collaborate, great, if not, we create separate projects.
Well this is stupid, People need their freedom limited to make the software easier to use to some extent.
So it's stupid argument he makes for his bias against windows. You like linux ? Fine, use it as you will. But don't prevent from others use whatever they feel comfortable to use. And nobody will listen to him. Unless he made his own specific Licence. Which could be problematic. But this kind of extreme behavior won't help people try to use Linux.
Sun? This must be 10 years old at least... (Or the author has not stepped out from the basement where he/she lives in the last decade)
Also after having checked his/her works I'm not sure why would anyone want to use them (on windows or otherwise). For most of them there are other alternatives with less bigot authors for whom, if needed, one might even send contribution.
Bigots like Stallman or this author do the most harm to the image of free software movement.
But next to enabeling, productive visions there are also visions that end up making things worse.
I can understand that assessments differ, but I can see that this author clearly and explicitly envisions to force others into his preferred systems by encouraging to crippel their enviroment to make their everyday life worse.
This is not exactly the kind of vision I would like to support. I'm all in for positive, productive visions though.
In your mind, are there bad visions and good visions? And you, of course, can tell the difference. You can of course see the destructive ones for what they are! And these bad ideas must be fought and purged before they cause damage. Is that it?
BTW, the author never expressed the wish to force anyone. It was a request.
It's not just the rude term that irks me here. I'm often getting a very fanatic vibe from people who viciously call out sentiments like the author's.
EDIT: Just saw this is from 2001, so may be a tad bit justified in the MS context. I still stand by the "goes against the community spirit" thing though.
Doesn't this sort of closed-mindedness fly in the face of the spirit of FOSS and community? Plus, today's MS is not the evil empire of yesterday. I'd rather be in bed with them than, say, Oracle. Long time Java hating .NET guy here- so I am probably biased though.
I agree with this 100%
Microsoft is responsible for destroying creative and better software than it produces itself
If you cannot see the obvious you are part of the problem
According to the author this is bad. I agree with this point for the purpose of this discussion.
The author tries to limit people's freedoms.
The author tells me I should try to limit people's freedoms.
For the sake of their freedoms.
P.s. I'm not familiar with the author or their software.
P.p.s. Luckily there's less need to port Linux software to Windows these days since Microsoft has partnered with Ubuntu to create a Windows Subsystem for Linux which is capable of running an Ubuntu user space and bash shell directly on Windows.
See https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/commandline/wsl/about
and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/commandline/wsl/install_gui...