Sharing files between Ubuntu 6.06 and Windows XP Pro - best disk format to use

[Derek Broughton]

Eric Dunbar wrote:

> I find the BSD model more respectful of the end user than the GNU model.

At the expense of authors.
> 
> The GNU model is an authoritarian model which shows its end users (in
> all sense of the word) less respect than the BSD model -- the end user
> is not trusted to make their own decisions. They are restricted in how
> they use, modify and appropriate the code.

I would disagree that GPL _ever_ restricts users in how they _use_ code. 
Restrictions on modification only exist if you distribute the code, and
there are no restrictions on "appropriation".

Do you, or do you not, own the fruits of your labor?  GNU insists that
nobody can take your work and make it less free.  If you want to keep your
work proprietary, you don't tie it to a GPL project or release it under GPL
in the first place.  However, if you release it under a BSD license,
anybody can essentially treat it as their own.

> The one model is built on trust, the other on distrust. Ironically,
> the way I see it, the BSD model is not so very different from the
> proprietary, closed model that it claims as its nemesis -- both are
> founded on a distrust of the end user (for different reasons, mind
> you).

That's probably not actually what you meant to say, but wrong even if
applied to GPL
-- 
derek