Free vs proprietary (was Re: NumPy, SciPy, & Python 3X Installation/compatibility issues)

[Chris Angelico]

On Sun, May 11, 2014 at 6:14 AM, Mark H Harris <harrismh777 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Proprietary code and systems will not survive the 21st century, you can be
> sure of that. 'We' can never allow another Microsoft to rule again; not
> google, nor canonical, nor oracle, nor anyone else. 'We' must have net
> neutrality, and software idea patents must die (world-wide).
>
> Go gnu/linux
>
> Go Python
>
> Go away, Microsoft, go away Oracle.

Actually, I'm not so sure of that. If all free software worked only
with itself, was GPL3'd to prevent non-free software from using it,
etc, the world would be a worse place. Part of what makes free
software so tempting is that it happily interacts with *everything*,
not just other free software. Otherwise, there'd be a massive gulf
between the Apple world, the Microsoft world, and the GNU world, with
minimal interoperability between them.

Instead, what we have is a world in which Python can be used to write
closed-source software, LibreOffice Writer will happily open a
Microsoft Word document, Samba communicates with Windows computers,
libc can be linked to non-free binaries, etc, etc, etc. Yes, that
means the open source community can't wield its weight against
closed-source. I am glad of that. Freedom means letting people choose
to be free, not forcing them to be free. (Don't get me wrong, forcing
someone to be free is better than forcing them to be enslaved. I don't
mind a preinstalled LibreOffice on someone's computer as much as I
would a preinstalled MS Office. But actually letting people choose is
better.)

Proprietary code and systems will continue to exist for as long as
people are willing to buy them. Maybe we'll see a shift away from
non-free desktop software, but cloud and mobile are still very much
the domain of closed source at the moment. There might be a shift
toward free mobile platforms, but I doubt the cloud will change. You
can run anything you like on a server, and people will use it if it's
useful. For one very very obvious example: you and I are both posting
from Gmail. :)

ChrisA