Essay RFC delayed.

[Ean R . Schuessler]

Ok, I'm trying to stop, really.

On Sun, Aug 29, 1999 at 01:37:31AM -0400, Eric S. Raymond wrote:
> I have never said the free software movement was a failure.
>
> I have said that it reliably fails to persuade people outside the
> hacker community and the 5%-7% ?NT? cohort of the merits of its case.

Ah, but that is where you are wrong. The concept of free software
motivated a great number of people to write free code. That free code
has been put into use by millions of people. Those millions of people
are a force of incredible influence that no one can ignore.

Rational and unselfish individuals will always be a minority of the
population. That doesn't mean that they can't have a powerful influence
on the rest of society. It also doesn't mean that they must reduce
their belief system to selfish and irrational terms for others to be
able to consume it.

It is an odd assertion that concepts such as "freedom" are not effective
for influencing the average person. The world's governments have used
that term with ruthless effect for generations. Most of the time nations
are marching citizens off to war for selfish reasons, all the while
crying "for freedom!" In the case of free software we actually
have the oppurtunity to use the term term honestly.

ps. I'm not ?NT?, I'm a Leo.

-- 
___________________________________________________________________
Ean Schuessler                Director of Strategic Weapons Systems
Novare International Inc.        A Devices that Kill People company
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