[ILUG] games.linux.ie

[Paul J Collins]

>>>>> "JC" == Jerry Connolly <jerry.connolly at eircom.net> writes:

    JC> Paul J Collins said the following on Sun, Feb 25, 2001 at 03:35:36PM +0000, 
    JC> Not the type of example I had in mind exactly (I was thinking
    JC> more of a business setting where software may be required for
    JC> carrying out one's work), 
    >> 
    >> But you have no examples.
 
    JC> I've given you an example of a product that doesn't have a
    JC> free alternative of the same quality.  Imagine a similar
    JC> situation with some business critical software.

I prefer not to imagine and look at what's really there.  You seem to
be unwilling to supply examples with regard to "business critical
software".  Surely, working for an ISP, you have examples of
proprietary software that has no usable free alternative?

I do note that Eircom Net uses Linux, Apache and qmail (strangely, the
netblock owner is still listed as Telecom Eireann).

    >> You are not free to give your friends copies.  You are not free
    >> to read the source code and learn from it.  You are not free to
    >> fix bugs that affect you.  You are not free to change the game
    >> engine to take advantage of the latest hacked-up set of
    >> instructions that Intel has added to their CPUs.  The list goes
    >> on and on.

    JC> Why should I have this "freedom" ?

Because without it, you are a victim.

    JC> Don't get me wrong, I like to have a full source tree for my
    JC> system in case I need to figure out a problem that the manual
    JC> can't help me with, or to learn from how things are done, or
    JC> if I need to clarify the internal workings of a library etc.
    JC> but I feel that it's a privilege, not my birthright.

You are wrong.

    >> This isn't about *my* freedom, it's about everyone's freedom.
    JC> I've gotten used to the chains.

That does not make it right.

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