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I can see why you as a consumer might not want hardware that you can't install custom software on. I can see why it might not be the best solution for legitimate non-nefarious engineering problems as well. What I've never related to, however, is the application of a moral dimension to someone selling such a thing.

I'm all in favor of pragmatic arguments for openness and hackability for the sake of good engineering, transparency, generosity, customer expectations, etc. Those are all good things. I've never gotten the sense that the absence of those things are necessarily evil, however. You clearly do, based on your choice of words.

Maybe that's the difference between the (for lack of a better term) BSD philosophy vs. RMS. The BSD (permissive?) philosophy seems rooted in the sense that sharing is a virtue, and not sharing is neutral (not necessarily evil). RMS' philosophy has always felt like, sharing is neutral, and not sharing is evil.

It's a gross generalization, but copyleft vs. permissive reminds me of western vs. eastern religions. The FSF philosophy is defined by a large number of very strict thou shalt nots, defined as carefully and precisely as possible. Permissive licenses like BSD/MIT/Artistic/Apache/etc. are defined by their lack of conditions, which usually just amount to "do whatever you want, but you can't sue the author".

Similarly, one of the ways western vs. eastern religions (from the outside looking in, at least) feel different is the focus on not being evil, by being aware of all of the behavioral laws you shouldn't violate, vs. the focus on trying to attain enlightenment by trying to elevate yourself. Stamping out bad behavior vs. encouraging good behavior. I see the merits of both, but for whatever reason the latter has always been much more relatable for me. I wonder if an individual's preference of copyleft vs. permissive is correlated with whether they think humans are inherently evil, vs. humans being inherently good or neutral. As cynical and pessimistic as I feel about humanity sometimes, deep down I do have a conviction that people are inherently good. It might be naive but I've never been able to totally shake it.




> Maybe that's the difference between the (for lack of a better term) BSD philosophy vs. RMS

I like your characterization of this, but keep in mind you're proceeding to apply a moral dimension here ;)

> I wonder if an individual's preference of copyleft vs. permissive is correlated with whether they think humans are inherently evil, vs. humans being inherently good or neutral. As cynical and pessimistic as I feel about humanity sometimes, deep down I do have a conviction that people are inherently good.

Most people have an internal narrative whereby they are doing good, yet we still get emergent evil behavior. I tend to look at good/evil in terms of describing constructive end results, rather than as intent behind individual actions.

Pragmatically, I'm seeing an awful lot of Free software that has been locked down through one scheme or another, making it non-Free for its end users. Since the intention of at least some of this software was to be Free for end users, I'd say nullifying that goal is moving in an evil direction.

While fewer restrictions is indeed "simpler", such a regime isn't necessarily sufficient to achieve certain goals. When something is existentially defined as "base primitives", complexity will build on top of it to undermine the goals that fostered the axioms. Only by defining universal quantifications on behavior can specific qualities be preserved through time.


> "do whatever you want, but you can't sue the author"

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law, but thou shalt not sue me! ;-) SCNR!




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