Re: Free software movement similar to Islam?

[B Gruff]

On Friday 21 October 2005 14:33 harddrivecleaner@yahoo.com wrote:

> Some similarities:
> 
> 1. decentralized : 

You think these things are better under a single dictator then?  Like
Stalin, maybe?  - or Bill Gates?
 
> 2. imperialistic : just as muslim armies once attacked country
>   after country, and today 

- and today, Microsoft has virtually a monopoly, in almost every country in
the world, pushing MS wares down peoples throats, even resorting to
threats?  You might like to search for "Microsoft+Africa" for example.
 
> 3. no dissent allowed : 

- which is why vendors don't offer anything except MS?
 
> 4. destructive : OSS radicals want to get rid of even
>   the copyright, 

Nope.
Get your facts right.
No organisation defends copyright harder than the OSS community.
What OSS does NOT do is to submit patents of the "2+2=4" variety.
You might like to look up some of the stuff that MS HAS tried to patent.

> And surely there are more similarities.

We ain't found ANY yet mate!

> This isn't to say that free software is all wrong,
> but it is better to know and think about the movement
> and whether it is going in the right direction
> than to let it become evil, like islam. The copyright
> for instance is so basic, to remove it would be so radical
> as to be insane.

Again, you need to read up on copyright.
Perhaps it would help if you were also to look at the terms under which MS
is proposing to "open" some of its stuff.

Please feel free to come back when you have a clue what you are talking
about.

Bill