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A most important freedom

I was quietly perusing an aritcle about Brian Behlendorf, when I syumbled across an important freedom that I hadn’t thought much about: “The most important freedom: the right to fork”.

It is important, too, as all of (for example) Microsoft’s mayhem & monopoly quest has been about denying that very right. Most governments get more than a tad upset if a bunch of their citizens decide to start a fork of their own, also.

Forking, in a way, represents the ultimate freedom: the ability to start from here (wherever “here” actually is) & go your own way.

Vive la différence!

I was made in Canada, so I'm supposed to know some of that stuff. (-:

Comments

lucychili said…
der about the right to contribute to the primary project, mit licence for example?
if i was representing that on a matrix which had access, use, modify distribute it doesnt have a specific spot for being able to participate in the parent.
24 April, 2007 21:56
lucychili said…
that should have started off saying i also wonder..

sorry =)
j
24 April, 2007 21:57
Leon RJ Brooks said…
Ah, well, "I1" is just two letters missing. (-:

I’ll put up with that any day for the privilege of earning a lucychili post to one of my articles. (-:

The ability to modify and distribute software amounts to a significant surrender of authority by the author(s) — but as I said, it’s an important one, a key aspect of freedom.
01 May, 2007 07:22
Anonymous said…
Leon, this makes me nostalgic for a time (1999) when I was chief system administrator for an open-source company in San Francisco -- whose sales force boggled at hearing me say the right to fork is vital and a key safety valve, because they were spending all day arguing with customers reluctant to use open source for fear it might fork.

So, I explained it to them.

Rick Moen
rick@linuxmafia.com
18 May, 2007 05:39
Leon RJ Brooks said…
Rick, you had a forking good go at explaining it. Thanks!
23 May, 2007 09:58
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