Clearing up FreeBSD confusion

Anonymous Coward writes "Daemon News has published an article that attempts to clear up misconceptions about FreeBSD. The article is primarily aimed at Slashdot readers based on the comments made in postings. " Well written, informative, and makes things much more clear.

Comments

Re:Communism again...

[Gleef]

I have read some, but not all of the works of Marx. I know full well the Cold War propaganda has nothing to do with communism. I also know that at least 90% of the people who use the "GNU/FSF/RMS is communist" line are trying to slander the target by associating them with the propaganda.

Here are some of the key points of theoretical, Marxist communism, and how they fit or don't fit with the GNU Philosophy (note, some are quotes of a translation of the Communist Manifesto, others are paraphrases of concepts):

the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles
The GNU Philosophy does not divide things along class lines. With GNU, the starving shareware author is as much in the wrong as the Microsoft Millionare, and the rich hardware manufacturer with Free specifications and driver source code is as much in the right as the poor amateur Free Software developer. The people too poor to be able to access computers are not even addressed in the GNU Philosophy. This is not an oversight on GNU's part, it's just Communism is a Social, Economic and Political system, GNU is a information and development system.

The bourgeoisie have developed substantial means of production, economic exchange and wealth, dependant on the proletariat. The proletariat, once it has gotten strong enough, will use its power over these tools to overthrow the bourguoisie.
The proprietary programmers wealth is dependant on rampant consumption, it's not dependant on the GNU developers. The tools the GNU developers are using to overthrow the proprietary system are not the proprietary programmers works, but works made by GNU for GNU, or by non-GNU Free software developers.

The proletariat are being oppressed and kept propertyless by the bourguoise. The proletariat will fight back.
The GNU developers are claiming the proprietary vendors are oppressing the consumers, not GNU. GNU is offering a way out, not a conflict.

The communists want to put total political power in the hands of the proletariat
The GNU philosophy wants enough political power to reform IP law. More might be desired by some individuals, but it is completely outside the scope of the project or the philosophy.

Private property, and its corrolary, personal wealth are oppressive evils and should be abolished.
The GNU project considers intellectual property to be a flawed concept, but physical property is perfectly valid. As for personal wealth, the GNU project encourages developers to charge as much for their services as they can get away with. It creates a system where people can focus on paying for tangible services rendered, rather than intangible IP licenses.

In bourgeois society, living labor is but a means to increase accumulated labor [and therefore create capital]. In communist society, accumulated labor is but a means to widen, to enrich, to promote the existence of the laborer.
So people working creates Capital (or code in the case of the GNU project). The bad society keeps the capital for the people at the top, the good society uses it to enrich the people making it. I'd say that's a match.

Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of society; all that it does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the labor of others by means of such appropriations.
I'd say that's a match there.

To create the communist state, you have to tranform the capitalist state. Among the many changes suggested to get the ball rolling are state centralized communications and trade
The GNU project stresses dispersed, decentralized communications and "trade".

Equal obligation of all to work.
The GNU project does not obligate anyone to help it. People do so because they want to, not because they have to obligation.

To each according to his needs, from each according to his abilities.
The GNU project pays no attention to your needs (avoiding the "Tyranny of Need" as Ayn Rand puts it) you use what you want to use. It's software, there's always more. You put in what you want to put in. Nobody is holding a gun to your head and saying "contribute more, we know you can". Thus the GNU project might go slower sometimes, and faster others, but it always continues, because someone always wants to contribute something.

Basically, it's a very incomplete match. I'd say that the GNU Philosophy shares a few scattered ideals with the Communist Movement, disagrees on others (irreconcilably so when it comes to work and property), and shares none of its ideas on how to acheive the ideal society. The GNU Philosophy is no more Communist than the Libertarian movement is. They are all idealistic philosophies, that doesn't make them the same.

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