Re: lynx-dev Concerning the use of abort in the source of lynx

[pAb-032871]

In "Re: lynx-dev Concerning the use of abort in the source of lynx"
[04/Jun/2000 Sun 11:22:08]
Vlad Harchev wrote:

> > But let's end this thread now. I responded because I don't want to see 
> > insults
> > against free software (I take an insult against Communism as an insult 
> > against
> > free software) on a mailing list for a piece of free software.
> 
>  Yes, the absence of your reply won't offend me (of course feel free to chat
> with me in private), but in general I don't mind this flame thread. 

First of all, it doesn't look like a "flame" at all: this discussion
is fascinating, but it might be a private one between you two.
That part is up to you [speaking of freedom. . .].  To me, these
are ideas, but you've lived there.  For a Russian, this might
be deeply personal.

If this isn't the right subject for lynx-dev, maybe there's a
more appropriate list or newsgroup it can go to -- assuming you
do want to air these thoughts publicly at all.


Personally, I think free software has all the best elements of
communism, democracy, and even free-for-all anarchism.  No-one's
forcing you to work on Lynx, but in its own way the cooperative
nature of the project is a kind of communism.

The discipline required to learn a programming language in the
first place is self-imposed in most cases, but the social desire
to contribute to a greater effort, and improve something, is what
idealists are generally after [of any political persuasion].

The official release might have to toe the Party Line [cf: recent
SSL mainstream thread, not trying to be flippant], but you're
free to incorporate any patch you can find, and there are a lot
of them.


Anarchism?  Well, yes: the source is right there [no; *everywhere*.
try a web search on any engine for "lynx" and "source". . .] and
you can do whatever you want with it.  I suppose an independant
cracker might even build malicious code into the Lynx browser
if they really felt like it.  But most people would have sense
enough not to download that version, and anyone on this list would
see that something's wrong with it ["why does this thing keep
trying to flood www.server.dom with bogus requests?"].


About the genetic decoder you're building; a lot of genetecists
refer to DNA as a biological data structure, but don't *really*
treat it like one, do they?  Great stuff.



Anyway, thank you both for a though-provoking read this afternoon.
If you do make it private or just drop this thread altogether,
I'll be sorry I missed a really involving debate.


No.6:
        "I am not a login.  I am a free man!"
                                -- from The Prisoner [sort of]


                          Patrick
                <mailto:address@hidden>
 

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