[AktiviX] The Free software mode of production

[Nick Hill]

>> *12.00 Open source revolutionaries (Provisional)**

The open source philosophy is apolitical and does not aim to be 
revolutionary. It simply aims at the software being used by more people.

The free software philosophy is revolutionary. It aims to increase the 
amount of freedom. Free as in Libre, not as in beer.

Open source software per se can be made proprietary and used to leverage 
against free software, reducing the amount of freedom. Open source 
advocates believe this is worthwhile if it means their software is being 
used by more people.

Those who belong to the free software movement believe that free 
software should not be converted to proprietary software. Improvements 
to software which has been born free should remain free. Improvements 
should be fed back to the community.

For example, code has been taken from open source projects and put into 
windows which is then used by Microsoft to compete against other open 
source/ Free software projects with the aim of Microsoft to increase 
their domination. Microsoft can improve the 'open source' components and 
not feed those back to the community.

Free software(eg GPL), on the other hand, cannot be subverted in that 
way. It remains free. If free software is improved and re-distributed, 
everyone benefits. No-one can own and control the original code and 
improvements made to a free software project.

There are 2 paradoxes:
1) Free software is under a more restrictive license than open source. 
The restriction in free software restricts people from restricting it in 
destructive ways. It guarantees it will remain free and cannot be turned 
into a scarce resource which can be charged for, and it cannot be used 
to create industrial secrets.
2) Free software has been more effective at being used by more people 
than open source (Remember the aim of the open source philosophy is to 
be used by more people). Free software projects get benefit from all 
improvements which, in the long run make pieces of free software better 
than open source.

It is unfortunate the event has been called 'Open Source'. I am sure 
this is a mistake. 'Free Software Revolutionaries' sounds far more 
plausible.