Ignorant writing

[Ben Scott]

On Dec 11, 2007 12:10 PM, Paul Lussier <p.lussier at comcast.net> wrote:
> F/OSS if you really want to whittle down to what it promotes in
> political terms is very far from communism.

  The labels "Free Software", "Open Source", FOSS, etc., get used to
mean a lot of things.  They all mean generally the same thing, but
different people intend different nuances when they use them.  (Same
with "communism", for that matter.)  So nobody (not you, not me) can
say what it's "really" about.  :)

  For example, I think it's accurate to say that some of the people
promoting FOSS also want "intellectual property" in general to be
abolished.  That would, indeed, eliminate "ownership" of software.
(Note that I'm not speaking to the merit of that idea, just that some
people want it.)

> There is nothing about economics in the F/OSS  movement.

  I'd disagree with that.  There are economic factors tangled up in
FOSS.  But then, there's usually something about economics in
everything.  Ultimately, economics comes down to a practical
application of the Law of Conversation of Energy, and you don't ever
escape that.  Ever.

-- Ben