Dirk is a very bright man who probably made this decision with great care. It is possible that Suse is in the midst of being purchased.
Suse is a very stong company, especially in Germany, and they would make an interesting aquisition target for RedHat or another tech firm.
One of the primary abilities that we humans have is the extension of self beyond our cells. This ability to extend our physical self to more abstract
patterns of information and relationships around us makes us quite different than animals and other living things. This extended self includes our ideas
and the tools we use to express them. More and more, these tools are being extended from a simple set of words to ones that enable more sophisticated forms of
dialogue. When I think of my extended self, I tend to include my expressions that take the form of my creative expressions that end up in digital form on
my home and office computer.
Centuries ago, free speech was illegal. Ensuring it as a human right for all has taken centuries, and it still isn't always available. With the advent of
more sophisticated communications tools, we have entered a world in which our rights to free speech may need to be extended to more sophisticated
forms of self expression. Free speech for me is a human right. I couldn't imagine a world without it.
I began expressing myself in the software that I wrote when I was 14 years old. I began by learning software languages that others had written, and by
learning to use tools that others controlled. Once I incorporated those tools into my own forms of self expression, I found that I could only fully express
myself by conforming to the laws of those previous authors. In effect, my freedom to extend myself through the software that I created was limited by
the original authors choice of a license. If the license restricted me from the freedom to redistribute my work, then my ability to free expression was
limited.
Today, thanks to RMS, the FSF, and more importantly, the GPL, I have an institution that fights for my rights to extend myself in the form of software.
Now, thanks to a group of idealists, I have a good set of tools that protects me and my liberty and you and yours.
If my software ends up being used by others to extend their self...do I have any ethical right to control them by restricting their redistribution?
According to copyright law and our societies current interpretation of it I do. This is the ethical question that haunts me. I understand the need to make
income in a world where money puts food on the plate and shelter over the heads of myself, my wife and my two sons, but I'm concerned that the
license that I choose may end up hurting another person by restricting their ability to extend their self to their fullest potential.
For this reason, I fully support the FSF and the GPL. I would suggest that we each seriously consider that our code can end up being an important
component in another human beings image of self. I would suggest that we each seriously consider that the license we choose is the law we are
imposing on these others. We cannot escape responsiblity.
Henri Poole
"The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power
is the love of ourselves." - William Hazlitt
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, buy the product online off mandrakes website. They make very high margins there.
Dirk is a very bright man who probably made this decision with great care. It is possible that Suse is in the midst of being purchased.
Suse is a very stong company, especially in Germany, and they would make an interesting aquisition target for RedHat or another tech firm.
What is it to be human?
One of the primary abilities that we humans have is the extension of self beyond our cells. This ability to extend our physical self to more abstract patterns of information and relationships around us makes us quite different than animals and other living things. This extended self includes our ideas and the tools we use to express them. More and more, these tools are being extended from a simple set of words to ones that enable more sophisticated forms of dialogue. When I think of my extended self, I tend to include my expressions that take the form of my creative expressions that end up in digital form on my home and office computer.
Centuries ago, free speech was illegal. Ensuring it as a human right for all has taken centuries, and it still isn't always available. With the advent of more sophisticated communications tools, we have entered a world in which our rights to free speech may need to be extended to more sophisticated forms of self expression. Free speech for me is a human right. I couldn't imagine a world without it.
I began expressing myself in the software that I wrote when I was 14 years old. I began by learning software languages that others had written, and by learning to use tools that others controlled. Once I incorporated those tools into my own forms of self expression, I found that I could only fully express myself by conforming to the laws of those previous authors. In effect, my freedom to extend myself through the software that I created was limited by the original authors choice of a license. If the license restricted me from the freedom to redistribute my work, then my ability to free expression was limited.
Today, thanks to RMS, the FSF, and more importantly, the GPL, I have an institution that fights for my rights to extend myself in the form of software. Now, thanks to a group of idealists, I have a good set of tools that protects me and my liberty and you and yours.
If my software ends up being used by others to extend their self...do I have any ethical right to control them by restricting their redistribution? According to copyright law and our societies current interpretation of it I do. This is the ethical question that haunts me. I understand the need to make income in a world where money puts food on the plate and shelter over the heads of myself, my wife and my two sons, but I'm concerned that the license that I choose may end up hurting another person by restricting their ability to extend their self to their fullest potential.
For this reason, I fully support the FSF and the GPL. I would suggest that we each seriously consider that our code can end up being an important component in another human beings image of self. I would suggest that we each seriously consider that the license we choose is the law we are imposing on these others. We cannot escape responsiblity.
Henri Poole
"The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves." - William Hazlitt