On Mon, Jun 07, 1999 at 10:54:37AM -0400, Mason Loring Bliss wrote:
> Maybe folks will someday realise that the ideas behind Open Source are totally
> antithetical to capitalism and competition, a system which at its essential
> core requires a disparity of knowledge that cannot be had when you're
> sharing your "competitive tools."

Not true. Look at the hardware layer first, we all have the same options
of 'tools' there. Anyone can buy a Pentium, or an Alpha, or whatever,
not anyone can, say, port NetBSD to it.

Without standards in things like the IBM PC, Linux wouldn't be seeing the
growth it is now. Standard hardware fosters development.

Next layer up, OS + Tools. Anyone can install NetBSD, (or Linux or whatever)
but not anyone can, say, configure it as a firewall, a router, a mailserver,
a nameserver...

Anyone can use gcc, GNU utils etc, not anyone can, say, write new ones.

People can benefit from the sharing of standard tools, without giving up
their advantages. Gcc must support more systems+platforms than any other
compiler, as a developer, that's an important feature, and along with
other ones, probably overrides any proprietary features of a competitor.

> But then, I believe that the great seething mass of "Open Source enthusiasts"
> are loving the free beer and are fairly unconcerned with the free speech, and
> I'm decidedly in the pony-tailed commie-pinko-liberal delusional guaranteed-
> freedom-is-important GPL-lovers crowd. :P
> (Of course, I've started a new project and I'm using an X-style license, but
> whatever...)

Freedom is important, I find the GPL restrictive. That's _one_ of the reasons
I like NetBSD :-)

-- 
David Maxwell, david@vex.net|david@maxwell.net -->
Any sufficiently advanced Common Sense will seem like magic... 
					      - me