[pp.int.general] Why Free Software misses the point

[Boris Turovskiy]

On 13.05.2010 03:56, Alexandre Leray wrote:
> Dear Boris,
>
> in my opinion you miss something important here: Free Software 
> challenges the separation of production vs consumption by encouraging 
> its users to be involved in the process of making. 
Well, that's an uphill battle against the course of human history which 
has seen an ever-increasing specialization; today's technological 
sophistication and level of welfare could only be achieved in that way. 
If everybody is a carpenter, mason, engineer and what-not at the same 
time, their carpentry, masonry, engineering and all other skills will be 
pretty basic if for no other reason than the limitation on the human 
life-span.

> In your paper you say "[...] a program is acquired to be used, not to 
> be modified or distributed." or it is exactly the contrary that makes 
> me interested in FS. While each user might not be able to read or 
> modify the code, there are many ways he/she can be implied: getting 
> involved in a mailing list discussion and in the elaboration of the 
> tools, bug reporting, writing tutorials, etc.
You may discuss proprietary software as well - actually, as the 
developers are interested in a monetary way in gaining customers, that 
may be more productive than arguing with diehard Free Software adepts:)

> There shouldn't be any "end-users", this is why it is a question of 
> philosophy and not only a question of method. 
As I said before, that's exactly the opposite of what history has shown us.

> The software industry is turning its "targets" into pure computation 
> through marketing strategies, Free Software is about empowering people 
> by giving them access to the sources (of code, of knowledge...), and 
> more generally by helping defining their own needs and constructing 
> their own tools.
The end user wants a tool that is working, not something which he has to 
construct beforehand.

Best regards,
Boris