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[poptones]

Seth Williamson Wrote: 
> 

> Well, I'm glad you're happy with your religion.  Me, I've already got 

> one, and for me open-source isn't a faith.  It's just a better way to 

> get some jobs done.

> 

> Your problem is that the majority of people are unlikely to buy into
> the 

> idea to the extent you've done, and for those individuals, the utopian
> 

> sell will just appear puerile.  Why offend such individuals?  Why not 

> just concentrate on excellence in producing software and let people
> work 

> for a better world in the way they prefer?



Linux is not just open source software. There's an arguably more mature
*nix around, and it's been around since before I ever heard of RMS. I
remember when the first BSD were being marketed with full blown pascal
systems, and it was only years later I first read those first articles
about building a new and free *nix in Dr Dobb's. 



Using linux is not just using "free" software. To many that may be all
it appears, but the reality is this community "theology" is a large
part of what has made linux what it is today. A great many programmers
put effort into linux software support exclusively only because of the
license, and that license is based upon certain ideals that go beyond
just "free software." If your goal is just to have "free software"
there's always BSD for that (although that community, too, seems to
have its own, slightly perpendicular, theology).



In short: you've got a lot of people volunteering effort in support of
an ideal. No one can reasonably demand gratitude, but it's not at all
unreasonable to expect a certain amount of respect for the ideals that
motivate thousands of people to voluntarily labor toward the common
goal of providing a -completely free- "solution that just works."



Nothing "just works." Everything in life is a balancing act, and that
balance must be respected if it is to flourish.


-- 
poptones