RIP: Linux Community (1991-2007)

[Darrin Chandler]

On Thu, Mar 29, 2007 at 07:00:11PM -0700, Trent Shipley wrote:
> Total freedom means total isolation.

This turns out not to be the case.

> The community nature of GNU/Linux has the ring of an origin myth to it.  
> Furthermore, to the extent that that myth is true, Linux is dying of its own 
> success.  Linux has become MUCH too valuable to be left to the limited 
> resources and self-imposed isolation that characterize pure community driven 
> libertyware projects and movements.

Not to put to fine a point on it, that's a steaming pile.

If you want vendor supported, closed source operating systems and
drivers you already have, and have had, many options. If you're going to
play the liberty game you should be serious.

Once again, if you're after CHEAP or NO-COST, and don't give a hoot
about freedom, then you're part of the problem here. I don't deny that
there are a lot of people who just don't want to pay, and don't really
care otherwise. But that's not me, and that's not what free software is
about.

I am not concerned with how valuable Linux is, only how valuable it is
to ME. When I lose control over hardware *I* have purchased, in the good
faith that I might actually be able to USE IT, then that value no longer
exists.

When someone bends over and lets someone slip in a proprietary blob, it
hurts ME because the vendor now thinks they can do that to everyone.
And, it hurts YOU as well. They are depriving you of full use of what
you've paid for!

To think that Linux now has market value, and therefore must be in the
hands of big corporations and commercial interests is to abdicate your
responsibilities for your own decision. What you do is still your
choice. Saying otherwise won't change that. The money being poured into
Linux from big corporations is meant to gain control of the phenomenon.
That control is being HANDED OVER to them in exchange for baubles in the
form on crappy, poorly supports, bug-ridden proprietary drivers!

If Linux dies of its own success, it will be because of the mediocrity
of its users and their willingness to sell their principles in exchange
for a temporary respite and a boatload of empty promises. I'm not going
to be one of them, and I'd hope you and others here won't either.

-- 
Darrin Chandler            |  Phoenix BSD User Group  |  MetaBUG
dwchandler at stilyagin.com   |  http://phxbug.org/      |  http://metabug.org/
http://www.stilyagin.com/  |  Daemons in the Desert   |  Global BUG Federation