Re: [DotGNU]Revision 1 Philosophy file

[Silvernerd]

Hi,

here is revision 2 of the Philosophy file. Thanks for the comments
Gopal.

Changes: 

"we believe that the concepts behind .NET are bad for the user."
became
"we believe that the concepts and intentions behind .NET are bad for the
user."

Added owner of the data concept and rewrote the section where it is in.

Removed reference to the 'Blue screen of death'.

Added line breaks for better readability.

-- 
Silvernerd (Peter Minten)

"Using Linux is like walking over a ray of bricks, not as beautiful, but
a lot more substantial than light."

DotGNU philosophy file

Copyright (C) 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Copyright (C) 2002 FreeDevelopers.Net.

-- DRAFT VERSION --
-- REVISION 2 -

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this document, but changing it is not allowed.

--

This software is Free Software, not Open Source software. The Free Software 
movement is 
idealistic and tries to tackle questions related to freedom, ethics, principle 
and 
improving society. The Open Source movement avoids these questions.

Please note that if this document refers to free it refers to freedom to use, 
copy, 
modify and distribute, not to freedom of price.

This program is part of the DotGNU project. The goal of the DotGNU project is 
to create 
'an operating system for the Internet'. DotGNU provides a platform on which web 
based 
applications, so called 'webservices', can run. Microsoft is also working on 
such a 
system called .NET, we believe that the concepts and intentions behind .NET are 
bad 
for the user. To prevent Microsoft from gaining yet another monopoly on the 
webservice 
platform, DotGNU was called into existence.

One of the bad ideas in .NET is the possibility of what is called vendor 
lock-in. 
Vendor lock-in is what happens when a user has been using a resource and wants 
to move to a 
different, competing resource, but the resource provider makes that difficult 
or impossible, 
through 'closed formats,' such as word processor document formats. Without the 
old webservice 
the user cannot access the data in it's files and is therefore forced to use 
that webservice.

DotGNU solves this problem by giving users ownership of their data. When an 
owner of data 
on a webservice want's to move to another webservice, then the webservice 
provider must give 
the user the executable code and in some cases (look in the DotGNU faq for more 
info on this) 
the source code of the webservice.

Another problem we have with .NET is the single-authentication service called 
Microsoft Passport. 
This system lets users store their data on a central server controlled by 
Microsoft. 
This creates great security threats because a cracker can then crack that 
server and get the 
personal information of millions of people. Also the government of the country 
in which the 
server is located could pass legislation allowing it access to that data. 
This would allow that country to spy on people. And of course the 
single-authentication 
service will be a major monopoly, which is bad for the users.

DotGNU provides several competing but interoperable single-authentication 
systems. Our systems 
can run on either a remote server under the same conditions as webservices or 
it can run on the 
user's own computer. This will make it harder for unauthorized individuals or 
groups to get at 
confidential personal information.

DotGNU was founded by the GNU project and Free Developers. The GNU project is a 
giant 
Free Software project with the goal to create a free operating system with 
applications. 
Today the GNU project has accomplished this goal, the operating system 
GNU/Linux is now used 
by millions of users. Note that we use the term GNU/Linux to recognize the 
tremendous effort 
that the GNU people have put (and are still putting) into the system as well as 
the superb job 
the Linux folks did and do. There are also other GNU operating systems like 
GNU/BSD, GNU/Tru64 
and GNU/HURD. The different GNU systems are all highly compatible. 
The GNU project is highly dedicated to the principle of giving users the 
freedom to use, modify,
copy, and distribute programs. Also the GNU project has made it a goal to 
create free documentation. 

FreeDevelopers is a democratic entity for the development of free software. The 
free company, 
probably the first of its kind in the world, will be owned and run by 
developers worldwide on 
a democratic basis in a sacred trust for the benefit and protection of the 
world's citizens. 
It will pay all developers to work on free software, and all developers will 
receive company 
shares and stock options, also. All software of the free company will be 
licensed under the 
General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html> 
(GPL <http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html>) and remain free/open forever, 
because all software must be available to all current and future generations of 
developers, 
so that they can be the first line of defense to protect the world from the 
inevitably 
tyrannical tendencies of proprietary software. 

Links:
 
 DotGNU homepage:
        www.dotgnu.org

 GNU homepage:
        www.gnu.org

 FreeDevelopers homepage:
        www.freedevelopers.net

 DotGNU FAQ:
        www.dotgnu.org/faq.html

 The differences between Free Software and Open Source:
        http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html. 

 Why we use the term GNU/Linux
        http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html