Re: A Linux Today story has been mailed to you!

[Raju Mathur <raju@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

``If you love someone, set them free.  If they come back to you, they
were always yours.  But if they don't, they were never yours to begin
with.''

Proprietary software development companies quake with fear at the
sight or thought of this saying.  After all, setting their software
free is the last thing they would ever consider.

Why?

OK, here's arbitrary classification of people #267:

a.  You have confidence in your ability to survive and support
yourself by the power of your hands and your mind.  You do not need to
bind anyone to you since people come to you of their own accord, drawn
by your ability to solve their problems.

b.  You are afraid, forever hiding, spending your life digging
foxholes and crawling in and out of them.  You have no confidence in
your power or yourself.  In order to make people interact with you you
need to bind them to yourself by ephemeral chains.  You keep trying to
enhance the strength of these chains daily, and spend nights worrying
that some child with fresh breath will come and blow on those chains
tomorrow and evaporate them into the ether they're composed of.

Many of us believe in (a).  We believe that you don't have to bind
your clients with chains of licenses in order to survive.  We believe
that if you can solve problems for your clients they will nourish you
in return, in a spirit of mutual benefit.  We believe that
relationships based on mutual trust are more fulfilling, longer
lasting and ultimately richer in all senses of the word than those
based on fear and repression.

Many people believe in (b), too.  These people believe that the only
way to manage a relationship is through curtailing of freedom.  They
believe that unless they grasp the client to their breast, tie him
down with chains of licenses, EULA's and threats of court cases they
will lose him.  And they're probably right: fear isn't the basis of
any healthy relationship, and people who've been unwillingly drawn
into such relationships will not stand for it forever.  They can smell
freedom even through the stink of rotting minds and will sooner of
later escape their prisons.

I won't be afraid the day that happens.

Will you?

Regards,

-- Raju

>>>>> "Suresh" == Suresh Ramasubramanian <mallet@xxxxxxx> writes:

    Suresh> Arun Sharma rearranged electrons thusly:
    >> On Sat, Apr 14, 2001 at 06:01:40AM +0530, Suresh
    >> Ramasubramanian wrote: > They do manage to do so - but they
    >> charge for their services and > their time, instead of for the
    >> code.
 
    >> They _may_, but probably not much money. It's unproven.  Also,
    >> people like Ganesh Prasad will make the money, not the people
    >> who write code :)
 
    Suresh>  Heh, likely.  Its a wonder that anyone can build a
    Suresh> business model based on linux, if what you say is true.
    Suresh> Or else, conventional economic rules dont apply and have
    Suresh> been turned on their head :)
 
    Suresh>  	-suresh
-- 
Raju Mathur          raju@xxxxxxxxxxxxx           http://kandalaya.org/