On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 04:04:41PM -0500, benjamin gramlich wrote:
> > So, how do I convince someone that they must care about their
> > freedoms?
> 
> I think it's difficult to make the case that free software helps to
> preserve our personal freedom. Free software really only benefits those
> who have the knowledge to make use of the access to source code. Much
> like the hood on a car only benefits those who know how to fix the
> engine.

Wrong car analogy.  If I have access to an engine, I might be able to
learn how it works, by experimentation, or by having a friend help me.
If it is welded shut then I cannot.

[Also if I have the key to my hood I can take the car to any mechanic that
I trust.  I don't have to go to a "manufacturer approved" maintenance
facility that will charge exorbitant fees.]

>         An option is only beneficial insofar as an individual is able to
> exercise it.

_willing_, not able (I am excluding physical and psychic disabilities,
as this was not your meaning.)

>              If I have no idea how to read source code or how to tailor
> it to my needs, the freedom has no effect on me.

Yes, it does - you can learn, if you want.

>                                                   I like free software
> because I love to tinker, not because I am not enslaved to Microsoft.
> 
> Stallman's arguments are sophistry, dependent upon a world view that
> extends only to the end of the make file. It seems to bother Stallman
> more that people choose to use proprietary software even though it is
> still a choice.

Stallman's arguments are a point of view taken to extreme, but it is
not sophistry.  His world view is utopian, but so was abolition of
slavery or women's rights at some points in the history of mankind.

Cheers,
florin

-- 
Bruce Schneier expects the Spanish Inquisition.
      http://geekz.co.uk/schneierfacts/fact/163
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