Car Analogy Ultimate Edition: Windows Taxi
Homer
imposed by the manufacturer, can customise it (or in fact can completely
rebuild it), can go anywhere you want - any time you want. The costs are
minimal compared with other forms of transportation, and you are free to
decide exactly who provides your fuel; servicing and insurance. Your car
is available to use whenever you need it, immediately and without delay.
Windows is a taxi. You don't own it, you merely hire it, at a cost which
is an order of magnitude higher than owning your own car*. You don't get
to choose exactly which type of car you get, nor which driver, nor which
route you take to your destination. You can attempt to influence drivers
with your opinion, but ultimately you are not in control. To hire a taxi
you must first find one, or call for one, then wait, perhaps a very long
time, for it to arrive. You have no influence over what fuel; servicing;
and insurance the taxi owner uses, and therefore no influence over costs
and reliability. Taxi companies impose many restrictions: No smoking; no
pets; double-charge on national holidays; waiting and cancellation fees;
and indeed may even refuse the fare completely, depending on location or
destination, the availability of drivers, the time of day, or many other
factors.
Windows is fine, if you're happy to be dependent, always driven by other
people, and subjugated by their opinions and restrictions. It's suitable
only for the inept or apathetic, those with more money than sense, or an
aversion to self-determination and responsibility. They're like children
living at home, ruled by parental authority, and absolutely dependent on
them for everything. They are weak, lazy and irresponsible.
Free Software is for grown-ups, those responsible enough to want control
of their own lives. They are autonomous and free, uninhibited by others'
opinions and restrictions, and can cooperate with others in the same way
too, unfettered by childish traits like selfishness and greed.
If you want dependence and subjugation, choose Windows.
If you want autonomy and freedom, choose Free Software.
[*] The overall, long term costs of using a car every day of your life,
compared with hiring taxis every day of your life.
--
K.
http://slated.org
.----
| "What's the point of supporting a large, faceless corporation that
| doesn't give you the good service you should get? We have MS for
| that..." ~ DFS, http://tinyurl.com/doofy-admits-truth-about-ms
`----
Fedora release 8 (Werewolf) on sky, running kernel 2.6.31.5
21:35:45 up 3 days, 7:58, 3 users, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.00
Ezekiel
"Homer" <use...@slated.org> wrote in message
news:gbnrs6-...@sky.matrix...
> Free Software is /your/ car. You own it, can use it without restrictions
<snip unread>
Another idiotic car analogy.
Jeremy Fisher
Why? it is a very good analogy, I disagree were the term free software is
used, Open Source is to me a better way of explaining were the costs
involved come from, you have the freedom to use it, but also have the
freedom to donate/pay towards the efforts that go into producing it. As
Homer says you give up your freedom when you take a Taxi.
Why take a Taxi, when you can drive the real thing!
Jem..
Ezekiel
"Jeremy Fisher" <fr...@linux.site> wrote in message
news:4afb44a3$0$275$1472...@news.sunsite.dk...
> On Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:44:53 -0500, Ezekiel wrote:
>
>> "Homer" <use...@slated.org> wrote in message
>> news:gbnrs6-...@sky.matrix...
>>
>>> Free Software is /your/ car. You own it, can use it without
>>> restrictions
>>
>> <snip unread>
>>
>> Another idiotic car analogy.
>
> Why? it is a very good analogy,
It's yet another stupid lame car analogy.
> I disagree were the term free software is
> used, Open Source is to me a better way of explaining were the costs
> involved come from, you have the freedom to use it, but also have the
> freedom to donate/pay towards the efforts that go into producing it. As
> Homer says you give up your freedom when you take a Taxi.
>
> Why take a Taxi, when you can drive the real thing!
How's this as an experiment... in *practical* terms tell me how my computer
that boots Windows is any less free or any less "mine" than my computer that
boots Linux. Emphasis on the "practical terms" and not some hypothetical
pie-in-the-sky example of how I'm free to go and modify the kernel all by
myself.
TomB
>
> "Jeremy Fisher" <fr...@linux.site> wrote in message
> news:4afb44a3$0$275$1472...@news.sunsite.dk...
>> On Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:44:53 -0500, Ezekiel wrote:
>>
>>> "Homer" <use...@slated.org> wrote in message
>>> news:gbnrs6-...@sky.matrix...
>>>
>>>> Free Software is /your/ car. You own it, can use it without
>>>> restrictions
>>>
>>> <snip unread>
>>>
>>> Another idiotic car analogy.
>>
>> Why? it is a very good analogy,
>
> It's yet another stupid lame car analogy.
I can do nothing else but agree.
>> I disagree were the term free software is used, Open Source is to
>> me a better way of explaining were the costs involved come from,
>> you have the freedom to use it, but also have the freedom to
>> donate/pay towards the efforts that go into producing it. As Homer
>> says you give up your freedom when you take a Taxi.
>>
>> Why take a Taxi, when you can drive the real thing!
>
>
> How's this as an experiment... in *practical* terms tell me how my
> computer that boots Windows is any less free or any less "mine" than
> my computer that boots Linux. Emphasis on the "practical terms" and
> not some hypothetical pie-in-the-sky example of how I'm free to go
> and modify the kernel all by myself.
Well, that's your opinion, and that's fine. To me (and people like me)
the open nature of F/OSS is a definite pro. An example:
I recently mentioned a bug in the FreeBSD kernel, which made it
impossible to mount ext3 partitions with an inode size of 256. Now,
soon after the problem report for this bug was filed, someone wrote a
kernel patch to fix it. I simply had to download the patch, apply it
to my kernel sources and rebuild my kernel. Thanks to this I didn't
had to wait for an update, or even the next release.
--
I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us.
Pigs treat us as equals.
~ Winston Churchill
Homer
> On Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:44:53 -0500, Ezekiel wrote:
>
>> "Homer" <use...@slated.org> wrote in message
>> news:gbnrs6-...@sky.matrix...
>>
>>> Free Software is /your/ car. You own it, can use it without
>>> restrictions
>>
>> <snip unread>
You didn't want to read it, but you felt it important enough to reply.
Your denialism is hilariously transparent, "Zeke".
>> Another idiotic car analogy.
>
> Why? it is a very good analogy
Thanks.
> I disagree were the term free software is used
Why?
Not all software that's "Open" is Free.
It's a /very/ important distinction.
The latter allows unrestricted collaboration, propagation, development
and deployment. The former does little but allow one's curiosity to be
satisfied. "Open" software is like a book you can read, but never talk
about, never quote from, never use to help others learn, never develop
the world around you, and thus offers nothing to society but a picture
of what might have been. In fact in some ways it's actually worse than
proprietary software, which at least doesn't torment people with false
hope. Yes /some/ "Open" software is also Free, but /all/ Free software
is Open. This is why it's better to prefer Free to Open, both in terms
of licenses and discussion of licenses.
> Open Source is to me a better way of explaining were the costs
> involved come from, you have the freedom to use it, but also have the
> freedom to donate/pay towards the efforts that go into producing it.
Exactly the same can be said about Free Software.
> As Homer says you give up your freedom when you take a Taxi.
>
> Why take a Taxi, when you can drive the real thing!
Convenience.
However, the convenience of dependence is short-lived, lasting only as
long as one's tolerance for subjugation.
--
K.
http://slated.org
.----
| "What's the point of supporting a large, faceless corporation that
| doesn't give you the good service you should get? We have MS for
| that..." ~ DFS, http://tinyurl.com/doofy-admits-truth-about-ms
`----
Fedora release 8 (Werewolf) on sky, running kernel 2.6.31.5
03:14:51 up 3 days, 13:37, 3 users, load average: 0.10, 0.07, 0.01
Jeremy Fisher
[snip]
>> I disagree were the term free software is used
>
> Why?
>
> Not all software that's "Open" is Free.
>
> It's a /very/ important distinction.
>
> The latter allows unrestricted collaboration, propagation, development
> and deployment. The former does little but allow one's curiosity to be
> satisfied. "Open" software is like a book you can read, but never talk
> about, never quote from, never use to help others learn, never develop
> the world around you, and thus offers nothing to society but a picture
> of what might have been. In fact in some ways it's actually worse than
> proprietary software, which at least doesn't torment people with false
> hope. Yes /some/ "Open" software is also Free, but /all/ Free software
> is Open. This is why it's better to prefer Free to Open, both in terms
> of licenses and discussion of licenses.
When you put it in that context, you are correct, and I stand corrected.
>
>> Open Source is to me a better way of explaining were the costs involved
>> come from, you have the freedom to use it, but also have the freedom to
>> donate/pay towards the efforts that go into producing it.
>
> Exactly the same can be said about Free Software.
Again as you explained earlier, I would have to agree the point.
>
>> As Homer says you give up your freedom when you take a Taxi.
>>
>> Why take a Taxi, when you can drive the real thing!
>
> Convenience.
>
> However, the convenience of dependence is short-lived, lasting only as
> long as one's tolerance for subjugation.
Would have to agree on that as well.
Jem..
JEDIDIAH
...except it is quite on point.
You don't "own" windows. The best you can hope for is to own a copy of it.
Your rights with respect to that for which you bought and paid are
considerably less than other things thay you bought and paid for. This
includes the aforementioned automobiles.
--
Nothing quite gives you an understanding of mysql's |||
popularity as does an attempt to do some simple date / | \
manipulations in postgres.
Ezekiel
"JEDIDIAH" <je...@nomad.mishnet> wrote in message
news:slrnhfos3...@nomad.mishnet...
> On 2009-11-11, Ezekiel <not-...@the-zeke.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> "Homer" <use...@slated.org> wrote in message
>> news:gbnrs6-...@sky.matrix...
>>
>>> Free Software is /your/ car. You own it, can use it without restrictions
>>
>><snip unread>
>>
>> Another idiotic car analogy.
>
> ...except it is quite on point.
>
> You don't "own" windows. The best you can hope for is to own a copy of it.
Any more than you don't "own" Fedora or Ubuntu either.
> Your rights with respect to that for which you bought and paid are
> considerably less than other things thay you bought and paid for. This
> includes the aforementioned automobiles.
I'll worry about my own rights. So what does this grandstanding equate to in
every day practical terms?