Re: [tlug] OT: Linux is Libertarian! (was "about iphone")

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Kenneth Burling writes:

 > GNU is easily compared to militant fascism.  ^^;;  It has its place at
 > times, but gets used way too often.  It is kind of like saying "You
 > are all free, now do what you are told."

Not really.  I'm not a big fan of RMS or GNU, but if you want the
analogy to be anything like accurate you need to recognize that GNU
socialism (ie, FSF monopoly ownership of free software copyrights) is
of the utopian "on the road to communism" variety, not of the national
"for the greater glory of the Volk" variety.  And I think that while
the GPL is barely within the lines of free software, it *is* free;
with very few exceptions (the anti-DRM clauses of GPL v3) you're not
told what to do with the software.

What I object to in GNU is not the Big Brother aspect (of which
there's none, really) but rather the "Father knows best" aspect (to
put it in your phrasing, "you are required to be free").  Also, I
dislike the really heavy burden of paperwork that any long term
project using copyleft must impose on its contributors and downstream.
Finally, I think that trying to take aim at patents and DRM with
copyright (as GPLv3 does) is stupid.  Yes, those BBs sting, but what's
coming back at us is a 6 inch cannon....