Oh, you're one of those Richard Stallman types who think that intellectual property is coercion? Haha!
HAHAHAHA! Uhh, wait....... Why do you continually misinterpret what I wrote and throw back something that makes utterly no sense to this conversation? Richard Stallman is an ideological extremist but he's done far more to help create a thriving computer industry than any other individual, especially Bill Gates. Almost every product that runs some sort of software, whether an alarm clock or Android phone or Apple MacBook Pro or Sony Playstation or Los Alamos Roadrunner supercomputer or Google, was developed using tools Stallman created and gave away. Many companies would simply not exist if it weren't for Stallman's free software offering a standard baseline to create products, as the alternatives are prohibitively expensive Unix OS (per system licensing sucks) or licensing compiler source code for a new processor IP.
So understand this. Richard Stallman's "sacrifice" in creating free software actually HELPS the computer industry in a way you can not possibly even fathom. Systems are complex, not simple and blind stupid like libertarianism. Much like the federal highway act HELPED commerce thrive in the 1950's. Much like the federal funding that made the internet possible.
Then I learned/realized that a: In many cases, proprietary software is more polished than the open source variant.
Again, reality is not as stupidly simple as you choose to see it. There is polished open-source and complete garbage proprietary. It has nothing to do with public/private, it has everything to do with the quality of the programmers and project leadership. For every Windows XP or Windows 7, there's a Vista and 8. I like Microsoft's UI guidelines, such as the ability to use same keyboard shortcuts anywhere, and hate lack of them on Linux. I love the fact that I can be more productive from the command line in Linux than I could ever be on anywhere with Windows. There's a bit more convergence with KDE and PowerShell, which is nice because I use both side by side.
Unfortunately with open source, the best software is guided by ONE individual with a very clear sense of direction. Too many open source projects get muddled by too many "good" ideas that turn one good idea into a disaster. Gimp is a great example of too many great ideas, absolutely no vision. You really don't know if a tool transforms on one layer or all layers, or nearly identical tools in the same app, and so on. Yet I can do very specific scripted things in Gimp that'd take quite a bit longer in Photoshop CS.
The rest of the stuff you write is pretty ridiculous mischaracterizations of things I've said - because that's the only way libertarians can argue. Particularly:
The hardware that you're not allowed to reverse-engineer? You probably agreed to a contract (ToS or EULA) when you bought it.
Funny, I've never even been shown a ToS or EULA whenever I've bought a piece of hardware in a store. Have you?
There are implied expectations you can demand of things, such as food being non-poisonous and cars being safe and airlines having competent pilots. You could sue if you get into an arrangement where they lead you into thinking you're getting something and giving you something else.
Yes, of course. If I get food-poisoning at a fast food place, I could _simply_ take them to court. You really think that'll work? Lawyer up!!
Also, humans are not causing the climate changes/devastating hurricanes/etc. That bs has been disproven already.
Ahhhh, you're a global-warming denialist who believes that 99% of every published climate scientist (and 90% of ALL published scientist) who believe it is related to human activity, must be part of some sort of big conspiracy.
No. It is real, it is happening, and not an opinion but a statement of fact. Just a heads up, before you tell anyone else you're a global warming denialist. ;)
HAHAHAHA! Uhh, wait....... Why do you continually misinterpret what I wrote and throw back something that makes utterly no sense to this conversation? Richard Stallman is an ideological extremist but he's done far more to help create a thriving computer industry than any other individual, especially Bill Gates. Almost every product that runs some sort of software, whether an alarm clock or Android phone or Apple MacBook Pro or Sony Playstation or Los Alamos Roadrunner supercomputer or Google, was developed using tools Stallman created and gave away. Many companies would simply not exist if it weren't for Stallman's free software offering a standard baseline to create products, as the alternatives are prohibitively expensive Unix OS (per system licensing sucks) or licensing compiler source code for a new processor IP.
So understand this. Richard Stallman's "sacrifice" in creating free software actually HELPS the computer industry in a way you can not possibly even fathom. Systems are complex, not simple and blind stupid like libertarianism. Much like the federal highway act HELPED commerce thrive in the 1950's. Much like the federal funding that made the internet possible.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/07/26/what-will-it-take-for-the-wsj-to-correct...
Again, reality is not as stupidly simple as you choose to see it. There is polished open-source and complete garbage proprietary. It has nothing to do with public/private, it has everything to do with the quality of the programmers and project leadership. For every Windows XP or Windows 7, there's a Vista and 8. I like Microsoft's UI guidelines, such as the ability to use same keyboard shortcuts anywhere, and hate lack of them on Linux. I love the fact that I can be more productive from the command line in Linux than I could ever be on anywhere with Windows. There's a bit more convergence with KDE and PowerShell, which is nice because I use both side by side.
Unfortunately with open source, the best software is guided by ONE individual with a very clear sense of direction. Too many open source projects get muddled by too many "good" ideas that turn one good idea into a disaster. Gimp is a great example of too many great ideas, absolutely no vision. You really don't know if a tool transforms on one layer or all layers, or nearly identical tools in the same app, and so on. Yet I can do very specific scripted things in Gimp that'd take quite a bit longer in Photoshop CS.
The rest of the stuff you write is pretty ridiculous mischaracterizations of things I've said - because that's the only way libertarians can argue. Particularly:
Funny, I've never even been shown a ToS or EULA whenever I've bought a piece of hardware in a store. Have you?
Yes, of course. If I get food-poisoning at a fast food place, I could _simply_ take them to court. You really think that'll work? Lawyer up!!
Ahhhh, you're a global-warming denialist who believes that 99% of every published climate scientist (and 90% of ALL published scientist) who believe it is related to human activity, must be part of some sort of big conspiracy.
No. It is real, it is happening, and not an opinion but a statement of fact. Just a heads up, before you tell anyone else you're a global warming denialist. ;)