Date: Tue, 03 Jul 2001 08:14:15 -0600 From: Don Wilde <Don@Silver-Lynx.com> To: Gilbert Gong <ggong@cal.alumni.berkeley.edu> Cc: Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm@toybox.placo.com>, j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org>, freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BSD, .Net comments - any reponse to this reasoning? Message-ID: <3B41D337.964D3C1A@Silver-Lynx.com> References: <001401c1039e$b0327f20$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> <001301c103ab$928400e0$2a5fa640@ggongw2k>
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> > >A few other points..
> > >1) I hesitate to defend Bill Gates, but the man has given a lot of money
> to
> > >charity (and I mean a lot, even considering how much he has). As much as
>[snip]
> > lives, it's only when an individual devotes their entire being to the
> > gift that it truly indicates a striving to touch God in the individual.
>
Well said, Ted. Regardless of whether one believes the Christian story,
you are talking about the essence of humanity as a common species.
[snip]
> [stuff cut]
> > technology or education into technology. There's a seeding of future
> > Microsoft sales here that should be obvious.
>
> Hm, didn't notice that ;)
>
Most of Bill Gates' contributions are not cash, they are copies of Doze
and Word.
There's an earlier example that's applicable. Andrew Carnegie was a
ruthless bastard in his youth, but many people said he had a change of
heart when he started being philanthropic. In actuality, his endowments
of Jesuit teachers' colleges and other educational institutions --
before there was ANY other alternative -- have done more to create the
modern dependency training factories (aka 'public schools') that we
(Americans) all pay for. He (and J.P.Morgan, Henry Ford, and
Rockefeller, Sr.) realized that they could not build their industrial
empires if they could not guarantee that people would be gullible enough
to buy their products and scared and dependent enough to accept the jobs
and working conditions that they offered. We see now the results of 6
generations of public schooling, and it's very telling that modern
schools spend more time concerned with nail files, pictures of army men,
and masturbation training than they do with anthropology and economics
and our Constitution.
Relating this back to advocacy [:-)], there's another educational
example that applies. In 1970, Ed Nagel founded the Santa Fe Community
School here in New Mexico. It's one of what are called 'free schools',
whose philosophy is that kids learn best when they follow their
interests. He has been villified and hounded by the Board of Education
and the NM State establishment for 30 years, including trumped-up
lawsuits, smears, and invasions by jackbooted thugs.
Here's a comment from him in a recent letter:
<<I'll bet you're getting awfully tired of fighting this fight over and
over again.>>
Not really: "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." The War is
never over; only the battlefields change (and the troops).
My point is that here again the right of parents to educate their
children as they see fit is again under fire, this time on a national
level. The Party (As Ted says, there is only one two-headed monster) has
given us an 'education reform' bill that's the worst of both sides'
proposals, and the only thing it will accomplish is to solidify even
further the centralized control of power.
As believers in the Cause that we the people can create and maintain a
common base of software that is beyond the control of government or
economic power, we must realize that we will constantly be under
assault. "The War is never over..." and the weapons constantly change as
well as the battlefields and troops. Each of us holds the torch of
FreeBSD in our hearts (sorry, getting mushy!), and each has the right to
speak his/her convictions. More than that, we _each_ have the moral
obligation to speak and live our convictions. I'm glad we don't have a
Linus or a Stallman. I'm glad (as well as saddened) that Jordan is
moving on, because he was the one the media were looking to to speak for
us.
The reality is that FreeBSD is worthy precisely because it is a
collection of many individuals who cooperate to make it happen. The
media can't stand that, because we're not entertaining and that's all
they live for any more. That doesn't make us unworthy. I'm glad
Microsoft is noticing us; they even spelled our name right. FreeBSD is a
lot like the Libertarian Party. Nader and Buchanan got a lot of press,
but Libertarians have more and more people on the ballot every year, and
we're the ones who scare the GOP the most because we are building from a
solid base of committed activists... just like FreeBSD.
FreeBSD is surviving and growing because it works and because the
project model works. I'm not a core team coder, but I buy CDs and
DaemonNews and I'm using FreeBSD and Apache to build my business to the
point where I can support someone who _is_ a core team coder someday. We
all play our little part, and all of our enlightened self-interests
together move the project forward in the ways that we all benefit the
most.
That's how life SHOULD be.
--
Don Wilde http://www.Silver-Lynx.com
Silver Lynx Embedded Microsystems Architects
2218 Southern Bl. Ste. 12 Rio Rancho, NM 87124
505-891-4175 FAX 891-4185
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