Re: [OT] Re: realplay.el interface with Real Player v. 1879

[Galen Boyer]

On 26 Jul 2007, address@hidden wrote:
> Galen Boyer wrote:
>> On Sat, 21 Jul 2007, address@hidden wrote:
>>
>>> Our message is that non-free software is unjust and illegitimate.  
>>
>> Hi Richard,
>>
>> I'm an Oracle professional.  I don't see any free software close to
>> as good as their database software.  Its a fairly easy argument to
>> make that if all software were free, Oracle wouldn't be in business,
>> therefore nobody would be able to use a database as good as Oracle's
>> is today.
> 
> actually, there are two non-sequiturs in your reasoning here. there
> are businesses making money with free and/or open source software, so
> there is no a priori reason to assume oracle wouldn't be in business
> if all software were free.

But you are talking in hypotheticals.  There is currently no database
software that is free that is anywhere close to as good as the software
from Oracle.  The existence of commercial does not preclude the loss of
free software.  On the other hand, it is precisely the commercial
software that GNU software is beating hands down.  But, the GNU
organization is not producing software that is better than all
commercial versions of software.

> and even if that did happen, it still does not follow that no-one
> would be able to use a database as good as oracle's: there is no a
> priori reason to assume that in a world where all software is free,
> there couldn't be a high-quality database.

But there is none today, so your argument has no weight.

-- 
Galen Boyer