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[DotGNU]First draft Philosophy file
From: |
Silvernerd |
Subject: |
[DotGNU]First draft Philosophy file |
Date: |
Fri, 29 Mar 2002 18:12:40 +0100 |
Hi people,
I've finished my first draft of the Philosophy file. It's far from
perfect, but it's a starting point.
I've assigned copyright to both the FSF and FreeDevelopers, is that
copyright assignment correctly written?
PS: I copied the FreeDevelopers paragraph from the FreeDevelopers.net
homepage. Since the copyright is assigned to FreeDevelopers (and the
FSF) I figured I wouldn't need a note saying where I got the text from.
--
Silvernerd (Peter Minten)
"Using Linux is like walking over a ray of bricks, not as beautiful, but
a lot more substantial than light."
DotGNU philosophy file
Copyright (C) 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Copyright (C) 2002 FreeDevelopers.Net.
-- DRAFT VERSION --
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this document, but changing it is not allowed.
--
This software is Free Software, not Open Source software. The Free Software
movement founded is idealistic and tries to tackle questions related to
freedom, ethics, principle and improving society. The Open Source movement
avoids these questions.
Please note that if this document refers to free it refers to freedom to use,
copy, modify and distribute, not to freedom of price.
This program is part of the DotGNU project. The goal of the DotGNU project is
to create 'an operating system for the Internet'. DotGNU provides a platform on
which webbased applications, so called 'webservices', can run. Microsoft is
also working on such a system called .NET, we believe that the concepts behind
.NET are bad for the user. To prevent Microsoft to gain an monopoly on the
webservice platform DotGNU was called into existence.
One of the bad idea's in .NET is the possibility of what we call vendor
lock-in. Vendor lock-in is the problem that arises when a user has been using a
webservice, but wants to move to another webservice, the webservice provider
can make that very difficult by not providing the user access to it's data.
This is done by using a closed format that can only be read by the webservice
that the user wants to move from.
DotGNU solves this problem by making it mandatory for webservices providers to
give their users the executable code (and the source code if the user wants
this) of their webservice if the user asks for it. The user can then run the
webservice locally and use it's files. Problem solved.
Another problem we have with .NET is the single-authentication service called
Microsoft Passport. This system let's a user store it's data on a central
server controlled by Microsoft. This creates great security threats because a
cracker can then crack that server and get the personal information of millions
of people. Also the government of the country in which the server is located
could pass legislation allowing it access to that data. This would allow that
country to spy on people. And of course the single-authentication service will
be a major monopoly, which is bad for the users (anybody who ever looked at a
blue screen saying that the system has crashed will know the consequence of
this).
DotGNU provides it's own single-authentication system. Our system can run on
either a remote server under the same conditions as webservices or it can run
on the users own computer. This will make it harder for unauthorised
individuals or groups to get at confidential personal information.
DotGNU was founded by the GNU project and Free Developers. The GNU project is a
giant Free Software project with the goal to create a free operating system
with applications. Today the GNU project has accomplished this goal, the
operating system GNU/Linux is now used by millions of users. Note that we use
the term GNU/Linux to recognise the tremendous effort that the GNU people have
put (and are still putting) into the system as well as the superb job the Linux
folks did and do. The GNU project is highly dedicated to the principle of
giving users the freedom to use, modify, copy, and distribute programs. Also
the GNU project has made it a goal to create free documentation.
FreeDevelopers is a democratic entity for the development of free software. The
free company, probably the first of its kind in the world, will be owned and
run by developers worldwide on a democratic basis in a sacred trust for the
benefit and protection of the world's citizens. It will pay all developers to
work on free software, and all developers will receive company shares and stock
options, also. All software of the free company will be licensed under the
General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html> (GPL
<http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html>) and remain free/open forever, because
all software must be available to all current and future generations of
developers, so that they can be the first line of defense to protect the world
from the inevitably tyrannical tendencies of proprietary software.
Links:
DotGNU homepage:
www.dotgnu.org
GNU homepage:
www.gnu.org
FreeDevelopers homepage:
www.freedevelopers.net
The differences between Free Software and Open Source:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html.
Why we use the term GNU/Linux
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html
- [DotGNU]First draft Philosophy file,
Silvernerd <=