[CS-FSLUG] Philosophical Debate

[Don Parris]

On 11/8/05, Ed Hurst <ehurst at asisaid.com> wrote:
> Don Parris wrote:
>
> >>Who's right? I admit I tend to favor the former. All the more so for
> >>FreeBSD. This is because I view FOSS through the eyes of faith. I
> >>understand "narrow is the path" following Jesus, and the logic of that
> >>suits me. To find that in FOSS is comfortable and comforting. MS Windows
> >>is an example of what accommodation looks like, in my mind. It results
> >>in a hellish dependency and ignorance, and much waste of resources.
> >
> > This is truly scary, Ed.  No, I mean it.  Really.  You're scaring me
> > here.  I see so many similar parallels between our faith and FOSS it
> > isn't funny.  But you can laugh if you want to! :-)
>
> I'm not laughing. I'm quite serious about it. The call of God on my life
> includes a calling to FOSS, and logic of that is obvious. We could
> discuss backsliding into the comforts of convenience, or the hermitage
> of writing your own OS, etc. That plenty of people disagree with my
> theology teaches me plenty will disagree with my computing, too. In the
> end, for me to compromise on FOSS is a sin. Not because it's FOSS vs MS,
> but because it's wasting God's resources. If there were a viable clone
> of Windows that was open, and offered the safety and full user control,
> I'd explore it, too. It's all about setting people free.
>
> --

Preeeeaaach!  I definitely see the freedom aspect.  I recently
commented on another article that if we don't stand up for our
freedom, we won't have any left to stand up for.  I think it had
something to do with a story-line patent or something.  I keep hearing
people talk about the trade-offs we make, and how it seems that
surrendering our freedom is not much of a big deal.  But it is a big
deal.

By agreeing to a EULA, I am agreeing to surrender freedoms
(supposedly) guaranteed under the phrase, "fair use".  Most of the
people who don't see the problem with giving up that freedom have
given up too much already.  They are the affirmation of why I believe
it's important to stand for freedom.  Soon, they won't have any
freedom left to defend because they allow themselves to be led back
into bondage.

I don't believe it's necessary for everyone to become proficient at
Assembly, or even programming.  I do believe that people need to be
responsible enough to take control of their computers.  I do some
basic maintenance on my car.  When I need to go beyond my skills, I
pay someone to do it for me.  I don't even have to go back to the
dealership.  Libre software gives us that same ability, whereas
proprietary software robs(?) us of our responsbility.  What's that
saying, "with freedom comes responsibility"?

Don
--
DC Parris GNU Evangelist
http://matheteuo.org/
gnumathetes at gmail.com
"Hey man, whatever pickles your list!"