[CS-FSLUG] The Moral Foundation of Free Software

[Don Parris]

---------- Original Message -------------
Subject: Re: [CS-FSLUG] The Moral Foundation of Free Software
Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 15:35:43 -0500
From: Aaron Patrick Lehmann <lehmanap at cs.purdue.edu>
To: "A Christian virtual Free Software and Linux Users Group." <Christiansource at ofb.biz>


<SNIP>

My practical concerns arose out of a stewardship concern.  The supposed
immorality of using closed-source software has been breifly examined with
regard to Microsoft (although not with regard to other closed-source
solutions), but not in any great detail, or any systematic way.  This is an
interesting question, "Are we responsible for the actions the entities we
purchase from take, using the money we gave them in trade for their product?"
I do not know the answer to it.  However, I think it is important to recognize
that this is larger than Free v. Closed source software.  This is a general
consumer ethics question, and should be looked at as such.
-------------

The problem with closed-source, as pointed out by Stallman, is that it leads to - or more accurately, is driven by - greed.  I believe most proprietary software on the market today is definitely overpriced.  As more people purchase computers, their prices drop.  As more people purchase Windows, its price goes up.  The same applies to most other proprietary software.  The software trend should follow the hardware trend.  Frankly, MS Office - along with many other distributions - offer more bloat than real innovation.  OpenOffice.org's ability to complete words is now one of my favorite features.  MS Office's ability to format my document contrary to my desired settings is not a favorite feature of that office suite.  Correcting such issues is quite the  pain.

>From my standpoint, stewardship is only one issue that must be addressed.  Furthermore, avoiding migration simply on the basis of "ease of use", which really is more a matter of perception, is - in my mind - poor stewardship.  If "ease of use" is the only cost factor involved in financial stewardship your decision is a very poor one indeed.  If, by developing or using closed-source software, I am legally binding myself to not share with my neighbor, I am willingly acting contrary to Christ's command.  I am not convinced that there is sound support for developing/using proprietary software.  Even if I must do a little extra work, it is worth keeping my conscience clear to use the FOSS alternative.

I am also not convinced that proprietary vendors are really any better than the FOSS community - my experience with so-called "professional" tech support has failed to impress me at all.  The security issues involving IE should lead Consumer Reports to cry "Foul!".  If the government has done so, I would have expected them to have been way ahead of the ball game.  I have experienced other serious disappointments with proprietary software.  A week after installing WinXP Pro, it blue screened for no apparent reason.  A co-worker is now using SUSE 9.2 because after shutting down his WinXP box, he rebooted to a blue screen - the highly-skilled tech had to re-install his OS to recover his data, then do a fresh re-install.  

Taking these things into consideration - any arguments that staying with Windows represents a good stewardship decision is equally as blind as not even being willing to count up the cost of a migration at all.  I think churches need to be open - and many are not - to the idea that something else could actually prove to be a better decision, not only from a stewardship perspective, but also from a moral standpoint.  The church has a theological approach to practically everything it does.  Why is technology ignored (beyond the usual web filtering hooyah)?

I am also not convinced that closed-source development model is a "blessing by which one is rewarded for one's labor".  In the long run, we now see many of our IT jobs being outsourced to India, and other places.  Hmmm...  Doesn't this go back to the greed issue?

As for whether we are responsible for the actions vendors take... The So. Baptist Convention apparently thought so when it boycotted Disney.  Many churches and Christian organizations seem to agree with that response.  I'm not saying they're right, but that there is some precedence for this.  The black community in America has boycotted certain industries or vendors in order to demonstrate the impact of their purchasing power.  They have successfully persuaded vendors to advertise in media outlets with a predominantly black audience.  Their motivation is somewhat different.  Yet the power they exercise is certainly a sight to see.

> 
> Until OpenOffice became available, a Free Software IT startegy was
> not a viable option for most ministries.  The costs of inconvenience
> and retraining were unacceptably high.  Fortunately this situation
> has changed.
> 
> 
> Aaron's other point was the claim that many people already know how
> to admin a MS based PC, while comparable skills for Free Software
> operating systems are less widely available.  This is a valid reason
> for supporting the Freely project which aims to bridge this gap.  On
> the other hand, I don't view this as a valid point in favor of Aaron's
> suggested strategy of using old versions of Microsoft software.  Even
> if, as Aaron claims, it is possible to connect such systems to the
> internet in a secure manner (i.e. without making oneself vulnerable to
> well-known exploitable security bugs), the needed knowledge and skills
> for doing that are surely very specialized and much harder to find
> than what it takes to administrate a Free Software system (which has
> been installed from a reasonably user-fiendly distro) in an adequate
> manner.

I disagree.  I believe you overestimate the difficulty of securing computers
and networks.  So long as the users do not have administrative control, and the
administrator is competent, I don't believe there is a significant inherent
difference in difficulty between closed and open-source products.  

Aaron Lehmann
-- 
DC Parris  GNU Evangelist
http://matheteuo.org/
evangelinux at matheteuo.org

Free software is like God's love - you can share it with anyone anywhere anytime!