Re: Formal Member Registration

[Arun Sharma <adsharma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, May 28, 2000 at 10:32:11PM +0530, Indranil Das Gupta wrote:

> Fine.... if OpenSource movement is no more, and that we are to use
> the OS and the s/w, then __who__ is going to continue to develop newer
> and better free s/w.... linux included...??? ;-)

Open source software can exist and continue to be developed without being
called a "movement" or the set of users being called a "community". 

Note the notorious absence of the use of the word in other free software
(they may exist, but not emphasized) - ever heard of "X windows user
community or movement" ?

Just trying to control paranoia and the religious color being added
to a piece of software. The set of linux users come from varied walks
of life and different political views. They work together best, when
they talk about software, rather than a popular political view.

My claim is that "community" and "movement" represent certain narrow
political views. It isn't apparent to the casual reader - but if you
think carefully, that's exactly what it is. They are very similar to
a particular use of the word "free" that's popular here.

	-Arun

PS: Does anyone have a reference to Linus using those words ?