Luis R. Rodriguez

Luis R. Rodriguez at

I consider Free Software philosophy at its infancy, regardless of the @FSF's efforts and @rms going around speaking about it. Once we have the topic of Free Software being taught at universities, then I'd accept we'd have done our jobs in the Free Software movement to educate about it as ethics. The subject matter of ethics may also be considered at its infancy as well, so we can't be too hard on ourselves. Lets fix this. What page do we really have truly dedicated about breaking down the philosophical aspects of *why* Free Software is an ethical attribute ? Most material I have seen are about licensing and rights but nothing to help those on the other side of things. Finger pointing at Microsoft or Apple won't help either. IMHO we need something like free-software-philosophy.org or something similar whereby the actual real philosophy is argued and paralleled with other historical ethical philosophy. What real *good* objective philosophical counters on the philosophy of the free software do we have other than Steve Ballmer ramblings on calling it a cancer? Is the @FSF willing to document objective counters? Would doing that parallel its mission? IMHO one reasonable counter is the consideration for exactly what type of software must be free software. One can argue games don't have to be free software, for example, I however obviously see gains on even making 3D engines open -- see ID's efforts on the Quake engine, but the philosophical argument of software for games having to be free software due to morality is likely weak. I consider this an objective counter. We need these as part of the education.

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it sounds like you've never read Free Software, Free Society. have you?

Alexandre Oliva at 2013-08-22T02:20:06Z

Someone wrote something a year or two back noting that games serve two important purposes:
  1. Games serve as an important entry point for users and developers. This means that ignoring the need for software freedom to include games eventually starves all other areas free software of the users and developers they need.
  2. Games are often where important tools and techniques originate. If games have no representation from the software freedom camp, neither will the tools that serve them.

lnxwalt@microca.st at 2013-08-22T03:33:33Z

free software philosophy.org? Sounds like www.gnu.org/philosophy/ to me.

Hugo Roy at 2013-08-22T08:07:31Z

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