Some evangelism this week as well. Picked up a glove dropped
by Nicklas Lundblad. Lundblad wrote an article published in
the Swedish equivalent of ComputerWorld, Computer Sweden.
Anyway, Lundblad wrote a confused article on free software,
mixing it with both open source, Eric S Raymond and free as
in gratis. I just felt I had to set the record straight, why
I wrote a 8000+ characters text explaining the fundamentals
of free software, the difference from open source and the
concept of source code as an architecture (the Lessig theory). Basically, I state
that Richard M Stallman is not an idiot and that RMS knows
that not everyone will start to code new Microsoft Word
programs if the source code is available, but that freedoms
are important in a society even when not everyone is
excercising his or her rights.
Something like that .-)
Further, some thoughts on the need for businesses to grasp
this concept and a possible need for other regulation if
nothing happens over time.
I named my article "Fri programvara ar inte gratis" (Free
software is not gratis).
I hope this clear things up a little.
Following my reply was two different replies from Mr
Lundblad. Lundblad wrote one reply for my longer version
article and one for the shorter version.
If you understand Swedish you might want to read something of
this:
My article - long version (published at www.idg.se)
.
My
article - shorter version (published in Computer Sweden).
Nicklas Lundblads original article (published in Computer
Sweden).
Nicklas Lundblads reply (published at www.idg.se).
Nicklas Lundblads second reply (published in Computer
Sweden).