[Gllug] Discussion: Is Enterprise Linux a lock-in

[Bruce Richardson]

On Tue, Jan 20, 2004 at 10:49:23AM +0000, Richard wrote:
> I noticed last time he spoke that he was using a pretty ordinary
> laptop PC.  Presumably this has lots of proprietary software in the
> BIOS, hard drive components, display, etc.

Don't forget that many of those components are manufactured in factories
in developing nations by firms who take advantage of the local
conditions to impose very unfair working practices (and I don't mean
some components company you've never heard of, I mean IBM and Dell, to
name just two) like sacking anybody who tries to unionise.  Where is
that covered in the GPL?

In fact, that is not fair.  I have no idea if RMS is aware of that issue
or what his position is on it.  But his views on Free Software are based
on a quite restricted pespective of computer use.  They only really work
in a society of peers, where everybody is a skilled computer user.  The
MIT lab where his views were formed was just such a society and one with
a very contemptuous take on anyone who didn't share their skills.  RMS
would almost certainly deny it but this elitism has always informed his
own actions.  For example, he lead a long campaign against the addition
of user security to the MIT network, on the grounds that all the
information should be free to everyone.  This may have been a reasonable
position when all the users were highly skilled hackers who stored
nothing but code on the system, didn't mind the code being open to
review and knew that any attempts at concealment would be seen as a
challenge but it made no sense once the system started to be used more
widely and began to hold personnel and exam data.

"Software wants to be free" isn't a good slogan to march under, IMO.
It's the people who use it that are important and he ought to remember
that.

-- 
Bruce

What would Edward Woodward do?
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