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"GNU is very anti-capitalism." Fortunately, however, the source code is not aware of this.

by pg 16y ago

hasenj 16y ago
I didn't mean it as "against commercial use". I meant the spirit of it favors community over commercial use. The whole point of the GPL is to prevent people from "sealing away" the source code and favor commercial gains over the hacker community. I view capitalism as "valuing money above all things". Don't confuse capitalism with the free market; the free market existed over a thousand years ago. Many people got rich through trade. Perhaps not in Europe (I don't know).
- anamax 16y ago
  > I view capitalism as "valuing money above all things". That's nice, but it means that no one can communicate with you because they agree that it means something else.
  - hasenj 16y ago
    Err, what's the other definition? "allowing people to sell stuff and earn money?", that's a very old notion, like I already said, it's not exclusive to North America, and it's not a product of the European Renaissance, it existed more than a thousand years ago.
    - anamax 16y ago
      > that's a very old notion, like I already said So? That doesn't imply that your definition of capitalism is correct. > it's not exclusive to North America, No one said that capitalism was exclusive to NA, was invented by Europe, or is new. That said, capitalism isn't binary - it's a range and you left out important details. For example, what does "allowing" mean? What people? What stuff? The standard definition, cribbed from Wikipedia is "Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for a private profit; decisions regarding supply, demand, price, distribution, and investments are made by private actors in the market".
      - hasenj 16y ago
        Propriety software is privately owned by the makers of the software, they control everything. GNU and the FSF were born because this model was deemed unethical by RMS and many who basically agree with him.
        anamax 16y ago
        >> Propriety software is privately owned by the makers of the software, they control everything. > GNU and the FSF were born because this model was deemed unethical by RMS and many who basically agree with him. Actually, free software is owned and controlled by its creators. They determine the terms and if you don't like those terms, you don't get to use it. You seem to think that "control" implies a particular class of terms. It doesn't. Control is actually the ability fo the creator to choose whatever terms she likes. BTW - RMS is an American and got his seed funding from Americans....

"GNU is very anti-capitalism." Fortunately, however, the source code is not aware of this.

by pg 16y ago

"GNU is very anti-capitalism." Fortunately, however, the source code is not aware of this.

I didn't mean it as "against commercial use". I meant the spirit of it favors community over commercial use. The whole point of the GPL is to prevent people from "sealing away" the source code and favor commercial gains over the hacker community. I view capitalism as "valuing money above all things". Don't confuse capitalism with the free market; the free market existed over a thousand years ago. Many people got rich through trade. Perhaps not in Europe (I don't know).

anamax 16y ago
> I view capitalism as "valuing money above all things". That's nice, but it means that no one can communicate with you because they agree that it means something else.
- hasenj 16y ago
  Err, what's the other definition? "allowing people to sell stuff and earn money?", that's a very old notion, like I already said, it's not exclusive to North America, and it's not a product of the European Renaissance, it existed more than a thousand years ago.
  - anamax 16y ago
    > that's a very old notion, like I already said So? That doesn't imply that your definition of capitalism is correct. > it's not exclusive to North America, No one said that capitalism was exclusive to NA, was invented by Europe, or is new. That said, capitalism isn't binary - it's a range and you left out important details. For example, what does "allowing" mean? What people? What stuff? The standard definition, cribbed from Wikipedia is "Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for a private profit; decisions regarding supply, demand, price, distribution, and investments are made by private actors in the market".
    - hasenj 16y ago
      Propriety software is privately owned by the makers of the software, they control everything. GNU and the FSF were born because this model was deemed unethical by RMS and many who basically agree with him.
      - anamax 16y ago
        >> Propriety software is privately owned by the makers of the software, they control everything. > GNU and the FSF were born because this model was deemed unethical by RMS and many who basically agree with him. Actually, free software is owned and controlled by its creators. They determine the terms and if you don't like those terms, you don't get to use it. You seem to think that "control" implies a particular class of terms. It doesn't. Control is actually the ability fo the creator to choose whatever terms she likes. BTW - RMS is an American and got his seed funding from Americans....