Re: Challenge: Find potential use cases for non-trivial confinement

[Jonathan S. Shapiro]

Pierre:

I am enjoying your use cases, but there is a problem with all of them.

All of these examples have a common element: one party is willing to
permit use of information, but not willing to directly disclose that
information.

I agree with you that these cases are interesting. I personally feel
that they are legitimate, which is why I do NOT identify myself as a
"free software" advocate (open source fan and supporter, yes, free
software ideologue, no).

But this pattern of "allow use but do not disclose" is exactly the thing
that the Free Software movement believes is inappropriate. It is exactly
the thing that Marcus wishes to make impossible.

I actually find this very curious. RMS has been willing to let the world
evolve into understanding over time, and this has been greatly
beneficial. Marcus is trying to take a "giant leap." I don't think it is
going to work, but it is certainly interesting.

I personally do not believe that Free Software can be advanced with a
stick. If the movement says to potential users "here is a big invasive
constraint, come see how wonderful our stuff is" most users will say "no
thanks". The right approach, in my opinion, is not to say "what you are
doing should not be done" but rather "here is a more effective
approach". Show, don't preach.

Demonstrating the better approach is how the movement has advanced
successfully in the past, and it is how the movement will continue to
advance. In my opinion, the only thing that Marcus is likely to achieve
by requiring an "all or nothing" commitment is the failure and
irrelevance of the Hurd.

I will go further: I believe that a major failure of Hurd project in the
past is that the project has consistently been more focused on ideology
than practical utility. It has chosen to be "pure" in preference to
"useful".

I may be wrong about *all* of this, but that is my opinion. I am just a
visitor. What the Hurd community should do about it is up to the
community.


shap