Re: Free software movement similar to Islam?

[MaskedSlacker]

harddrivecleaner@yahoo.com wrote:
> Some similarities:
>
> 1. decentralized : there is no one Pope for either,
>   although there are certainly Ayatollah wannabes in OSS
>   like RMS.
>
> 2. imperialistic : just as muslim armies once attacked country
>   after country, and today there is a "reverse crusade" & jihad
>   happening, OSS is entering almost every area of software use
>   and many OSS partisans are going to an extra effort to
>   impose free software on their organizations, families, etc.
>
> 3. no dissent allowed : just as muslims feel compelled
>   to attack anyone who speaks blasphemy, such as Salman Rushdie
>   who merely points out that the koran is merely a historical
>   document (therefore he must be killed), so alas OSS
>   supporters become very angry when any dissenter speaks
>   their mind.

Maybe we diverge into split personalities when we do this too, since  I 
don't ever remember doing that.

> 4. destructive : OSS radicals want to get rid of even
>   the copyright, and the GPL is written to strip software writers
>   of their rights over their work (read it...); similarly
>   muslim radicals want to rid the world of non-muslim people
>   and impose taxes and prison time or worse on non-muslims.

That doesn't make anysense.  Using the GPL on your work is entirely 
voluntary.  Therefore you cannot say it strips rights away from a person 
using it.  And as for the provision that derivative works must also be 
GPL, well no shit.  What do you think MS would do if you made a 
derivative work of one of their products?  Let you publish in whatever 
way you please?  I think not.

> And surely there are more similarities.
>
> This isn't to say that free software is all wrong,
> but it is better to know and think about the movement
> and whether it is going in the right direction
> than to let it become evil, like islam. The copyright
> for instance is so basic, to remove it would be so radical
> as to be insane.

Islam isn't evil you bigoted fuck.

People twisting religion to their own ends are evil.