Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!wuarchive!sdd.hp.com!hp-pcd!hpcvlx!ben
From: ben@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com (Benjamin Ellsworth)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: rms says...
Message-ID: <100920290@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com>
Date: 4 Feb 91 23:45:22 GMT
References: <21327@yunexus.YorkU.CA>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Corvallis, OR, USA
Lines: 31


> ... He [me] was implying that if the software worked, the users
> wouldn't be hindered by lack of access to source. ...

There are and will continue to be legitimate uses and needs for source
code.

I was taking particular issue with rms's use of the word "most."  Since
most users don't want the source, the fact that they can't get it is a
no-op.  Trying to prop up his utopian proselytizing with such a
statement indicates to me an unrealistic world view.

> ...if the source to X weren't available, those users would be
> hindered.

Those users, in my experience, constitute and exceedingly small
minority of X users.  Interestingly, however, within that very small
minority are some of the users who you are most anxious to have your
source.  Those users should be accomodated.  The approach put forward
(and forcibly so for users of his software) by rms is not a realistic
or workable approach for the marketplace in general (it does work great
when your market is heavily populated by techno-whizzes).

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