Re: [tlug] Tux is now in Tokyo ! who wants to get it ?

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Edward Middleton writes:

 > > I.e., they want software at price zero far more than they want source.

 > I think it is more they don't want to keep paying for it.

You say "to-MAY-to", I say "to-MAH-to".  Either way, they don't want
to pay.

 > No-one wants to give them their money back for the perfect
 > condition digital copy they have of the old software, it is
 > essentially worthless.

Indeed, it *is* essentially worthless, just like an autographed CD of
Steve Turnbull singing karaoke is.  Live with it.  I have to. :-)

 > MS et. al. might want to convince everyone that they are licensing
 > you a service but I don't think anyone really buys that argument.

Besides not wanting to pay, they don't want to *think*, especially not
if that would lead to the understanding that there's good reason why
they should have to pay.

Look, if you want to use 3-year-old software, buy commodity hardware
and install Debian testing.  Isn't some version of that story why
we're all here on TLUG?

But the average customers *don't* want 3-year-old software, they want
the bug fixes, security patches, and new features of the new version.
They also want compatibility with their friends (who are running the
new version), not to mention the new smaller more convenient more
beautiful hardware with a photo of Amuro Namie on it, preloaded with a
complete list of URLs to all the "maid cafes" and "cosprey snakkus" in
Tokyo.

Sure, there are people and businesses who are exactly as you say,
they're tired of paying for whole systems when just a cheap hardware
upgrade and reinstall of the old OS and software should be fine
... but it don't work that way because actually it's 7-year-old
hardware that was end-of-life when you bought it (that's why it was
cheap) and even in Japan you can't get parts after 7 years.  That's
sad, and I'm not saying there's no problem here.  (OTOH, it is quite
possible that there really is no problem here.)

I'm just saying that the "free software" movement is mostly about free
beer and hacker privilege.  It's not about the kinds of liberty that
Rousseau and Jefferson wrote about, and it's very rarely about being
able to repair the mess yourself.