ZDNet: When you have Right on your side (or Left, as the case may be)

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Jun 21, 2000

“Now, as I understand it, the primary goal of BSD coders is
to have their code used, and how it’s used is less important. But
this one-way flow must nonetheless be irksome to those who have
seen Linux far surpass the longer-running BSD model in public mind
share.
“

“One could also see it in a different way. While BSD folk write
code just to “get it out there,” and the open source movement (at
least as expressed by Eric Raymond) advocates that its use makes
economic sense, the GNU rationale is based mainly on righteousness.
While others seem to value the merits of free software on practical
merits or even pure self-interest, the people behind GNU say, when
it comes down to it, this is a simple matter of right and
wrong….”

“The general belief in “sharing is good, hoarding is bad” as a
truism owes more to religion or spirituality than to any logic or
observation. After all, Richard Stallman wasn’t the first to decry
the hoarding of private property as a social ill — the concept is
well-explained in Karl Marx’s 1846 work, The German Ideology. Many
of the problems identified in Marx’s work are echoed in much of the
writings related to GNU philosophy. For instance, Marx stated that
hoarding private property was against the good of the people, and
this is exactly what Stallman says about the hoarding of
software.”


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Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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