[DotGNU]Re: DotGNU Manifesto - first draft

[Norbert Bollow]

Richard,
  thank you so much for your comments and suggested edits.  Most
of them make perfect sense to me, and the next draft will have
the corresponding changes.

There is however one point on which I don't agree with what you
request, and indeed I think that the request is inconsistent
with the principles which you quote in justification of your
stance concerning "free software" vs "open source".


>        "It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights
>        become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God
>        hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; 
> 
> For the sake of the atheists among us, could we please leave
> out the god talk?  Quoting Jefferson and mentioning Curran's name
> would probably be more effective.

Isn't this request in principle very similar to an "open source"
leader requesting that "for the sake of those who don't agree
that software modification and redistribution rights are a
matter of ethics" one should "leave out the ethics talk",
because e.g. quoting Eric Raymond and only mentioning Richard
Stallman's name would "be more effective" (for the purposes of
furthering the goals of the open source movement)?

That would be nasty.

Even though the "open source" movement does not agree with the
ethical imperative that all software should be free, it would
still be proper for them to prominently cite the Free Software
movement as part of their intellectual heritage, in a way that
clearly shows that for the Free Software movement these things
are a matter of ethics.

Similarly, even though the DotGNU project is not in itself a
religious (or anti-religious) activity of any kind, I think it
is only proper to give such credit to the fact that much of the
philosophical, social and political foundations for today's
freedom ethics has been laid by god-fearing people of the past,
who in turn were directly or indirectly inspired by the New
Testament (where freedom is one of the major themes).  That
quote from Curran serves this purpose.

Greetings, Norbert.

-- 
A founder of the http://DotGNU.org project and Steering Committee member
Norbert Bollow, Weidlistr.18, CH-8624 Gruet   (near Zurich, Switzerland)
Tel +41 1 972 20 59       Fax +41 1 972 20 69      http://thinkcoach.com
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