Bug #1 must be closed.

frederik.nnaji at gmail.com frederik.nnaji at gmail.com
Sun Mar 6 15:06:41 UTC 2011


Hello Jo-Erlend,

On Sun, Mar 6, 2011 at 04:20, Jo-Erlend Schinstad <
joerlend.schinstad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thank you for your willingness to read my thoughts. I believe they are
> worthy.
>
> I live in the dead centrre of Oslo, Norway. I personally started
> playing with GNU+Linux in my late teens, when Microsoft still had the
> inertia. They no longer have it. I was forced to accept Windows as a
> replacement for GEM. And I remember the day when my father installed
> Windows at the cost of GEM. I was born in 1980.
>
> I have hated Microsoft for 23 of my 30 years. I no longer do. I think
> Microsoft is beginning to understand what Google, Facebook, Twitter,
> Wikipedia.... You know the companies I'm talking about. And Microsoft
> do support them. And that is not enough for me to support Microsoft,
> but it does tell me something about their willingness to change.
>
> I also do not believe in change for the sake of change. I believe that
> is what Apple is doing at this time. It seems to me that we should
> give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt and focus our own passion for
> freedom at what Apple is doing. What is it they're doing, are they
> really just refining free software, or are they really doing something
> that will be beneficial to the WWW and the Internet?
>
> I believe that it is better for us to help Microsoft as a worthy
> competitor. This will make people angry, but I ask you to consider the
> fact that I have worked actively against any form of Microsoft
> dominated Internet since I was 13 years of age. I am 30. I do not
> believe in the goals of Unity, Windows 7 or OS X. I believe them to be
> mistakes that lots of people have to live with. I am fine with it.
> Perhaps they really are better.
>
> Do we care? If they make something good, then we will make something
> better. We are afraid of patents because we know that they can take
> ours without giving us theirs. Do not be fooled. Apple is the best
> GNU/Linux operating system for the desktop. Ok, so they don't use
> Linux and probably not all of GNU. What does Microsoft have to lay on
> the table? Microsoft has nothing we want, except for some aging
> technologies that makes the game industry feel at home. Do you
> remember the name of the company that was what Microsoft is today?
> Novell? Novell Netware is about to be forgotten. It is a good thing.
> Both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.04 does a better job. We do a better job
> than Microsoft on most issues.
>
> Let us now stop the hatred against Microsoft and start focusing on how
> we will defeat Apple. We have expertise on ARM. We can provide
> software on any platform we want. There is no question about that. The
> only question is how do we do it?
>
> Microsoft is not our enemy. They've proven that. We have proven that.
> Those who appose free software, are our enemies and we will defeat
> them, just like we defeated Microsofts ancient ideas, related to the
> extreme development that the free internet and free software has
> experienced. Well. Perhaps we didn't wear them down or defeat them.
> Perhaps we just edjucated them and if they were willing to listen,
> then we should listen to them.
>
> We have the burden of Free Software on our shoulders. It really is up
> to us to decide whether or not knowing your environment gives you a
> better environment. We believe so. We do.
>
> We are the power of the Linux desktop world. We make Linux available
> to people who doesn't understand what a kernel is.
>
> If Microsoft gives us Silverlight DRM, then we will support them as a
> newborns awakening. If they give us the choice, then we will choose
> Ubuntu, but we will also support Microsoft as a modern competitor in a
> market that has never been before. We will help them, if they help us.
>
> We will stop hating them if they stop forcing us to choose between
> football and computers.
>
> We want Microsoft to succeed, as long as they just give us the chance
> to compete. They say Free Software is communist whereas they're
> capitalists. . Let's see if freedom of choice is chosen by freedom of
> suppression or freedom of participation.
>
> I am not speaking on behalf of anyone other than myself.
>
> Jo-Erlend
>

It is true, there are many people who share the sentiments you describe
above.

In my personal opinion, neither defeat nor competition are among the top 3
goals a software developer or designer should be concerned with.
The most important thing is Experience, then perhaps as an element of
Experience the factors of Utility and Usability.
That's my personal opinion, and i'm happy about any argument or thesis that
falsifies me here.

The main reason why bug #1 exists, imo, would be the fact that we are left
without choice, since maximization of profit does not count of allowing the
user free choice, free will or even "Free".
Maximization of profit is a very narrow thing, when "profit" means
"proprietary" wealth. Property is an illusion, if it does not satisfy your
thirst or hunger, if it can not help you when you are ill, or if it can not
make you feel better when you are feeling down.

The known concepts of proprietary wealth and the maximazation thereof are
led by the DuPont ROI scheme, which would encompass most of the competitive
circumstances your open letter above addresses. This scheme doesn't focus on
humans, on unity, on common social goals or on anything social at all. It is
focused mainly on maximizing the illusion of "property".

What "Free" aims at achieving, is to deliver something that is first of all
Free. After that condition is satisfied, other conditions such as "Open",
"Humane" or "Social" begin to become relevant. When something is not Free,
its availability is limited to an elite, and that is something we need to
get away from.

Thanks for your letter, i enjoyed reading it!
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