Re: Icon designer wanted (Aquamacs Emacs)

[David Kastrup]

Tim McNamara <timmcn@bitstream.net> writes:

> David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:
>
>> Tim McNamara <timmcn@bitstream.net> writes:
>>
>>> "Luis O. Silva" <l.o.silva@mail.ru> writes:
>>>
>>>> On Thu, 05 Jan 2006 00:59:49 -0600, Tim McNamara writes:
>>>>
>>>>    TM> I've yet to find a GNU/Linux or BSD system that is as good
>>>>    TM> to use as OS X.
>>>>
>>>> It's not a matter of how well something works. The only way to go
>>>> is that of freedom.
>>>
>>> How well software works is a central issue in getting people to use
>>> it.
>>
>> It is a secondary consideration for free software.  The primary
>> motivator is freedom.  If it weren't, free software would not exist,
>> since the beginnings of free software were almost necessarily
>> technically inferior to proprietary offerings.  Free software owes
>> its existence to its freedoms, not its usefulness.  If you sacrifice
>> the freedom for the sake of usefulness, you'll lose both in the end.
>
> And vice-versa, David.

No, not vice-versa.  Reread the paragraph you quoted until you
understand it.

> I am baffled that you seem to be unable to see that.  Free useless
> software is simply irrelevant and contributes nothing.  Free
> difficult-to-use software risks being irrelevant and contributing
> little.

But free software _was_ difficult to use from its inception.  Your
argument is contradicted by history.  If everybody had chosen
convenience over freedom, you'd not have anything to whine about now.
Granted, few people choose freedom over convenience.  But since the
consequences of their choice remain with us, they can still make a
difference, and that's the power of free software.  Regardless of its
weaknesses, you can't squash it.

By now, most of the traditional Unix market has been flattened by
Linux.  And the reason is that the Unix competition required companies
to fight for the best reinvention of the wheel.  The power of free
software is that the best wheel from everybody gets picked, and then
people move on.  The steps may be tiny, but they move on.

And that is why fiendishly-difficult-to-use free software crawled into
being and did not vanish off the chart.  Lose the freedom, and it goes
down the drain as soon as the initial impetus is gone.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum