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I don't think there's anything wrong with strict personal adherence to an ideology. I greatly admire Stallman for the sarcrifices he's made in this regard (for

I don't think there's anything wrong with strict personal adherence to an ideology. I greatly admire Stallman for the sarcrifices he's made in this regard (for instance using a terrible laptop only because it's got open firmware, see: http://richard.stallman.usesthis.com/ http://richard.stallman.usesthis.com/) Where it all comes unstuck is when someone tries to force their strict ideology on others. Stallman calling me immoral for not open sourcing my code gets roughly the same reaction from me as some guy on the street would if he screamed at me that I'm selfish for not donating all my stuff to charity. Or when Christians tell me to repent or I'm going to burn in hell.

loup-vaillant 16y ago
You shouldn't get offended when someone calls you immoral when you don't think you are. It just means your moral systems don't match. Also, calling "strict ideology" the moral system Stallman is trying to spread is a stretch. His moral system really is quite reasonable. You probably know the propaganda by heart, but anyway… Unlike your stuff, software is abundant. Give it to charity, and you still have it. Such a fundamental difference calls for a fundamentally different moral system. Stallman found a suitable one: it is applied to scientific research: results should be public knowledge, so everyone can benefit from them. Under such moral system, it is indeed immoral to make proprietary software.
- reitzensteinm 16y ago
  I'm not sure I agree that I shouldn't be offended. If someone tells me that I'm being immoral by their moral code, I don't have a problem with that. But to simply say that I'm acting immorally is to assert that their moral code is the standard by which everyone should be judged, which in my opinion is offensive.
  - loup-vaillant 16y ago
    The problem is, if I think that doing something is evil, I probably don't want anyone to do that: that would be evil to me. I see few ways around that.

loup-vaillant 16y ago

You shouldn't get offended when someone calls you immoral when you don't think you are. It just means your moral systems don't match. Also, calling "strict ideology" the moral system Stallman is trying to spread is a stretch. His moral system really is quite reasonable. You probably know the propaganda by heart, but anyway… Unlike your stuff, software is abundant. Give it to charity, and you still have it. Such a fundamental difference calls for a fundamentally different moral system. Stallman found a suitable one: it is applied to scientific research: results should be public knowledge, so everyone can benefit from them. Under such moral system, it is indeed immoral to make proprietary software.

reitzensteinm 16y ago
I'm not sure I agree that I shouldn't be offended. If someone tells me that I'm being immoral by their moral code, I don't have a problem with that. But to simply say that I'm acting immorally is to assert that their moral code is the standard by which everyone should be judged, which in my opinion is offensive.
- loup-vaillant 16y ago
  The problem is, if I think that doing something is evil, I probably don't want anyone to do that: that would be evil to me. I see few ways around that.