From: Johan Vromans <jvromans_at_squirrel.nl>
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 17:14:37 +0100

Quite predictably, Fred Maxwell writes:

> I disagree.

Of course you do :-).

> For the vast majority of people, the important question is whether
> the software is how well the software works and whether it is
> freeware, adware, spyware, shareware, or commercial.

Indeed. But with accessible source, everyone can see for himself that
a piece of software is free of undesirable side-effects. And, very
important, everyone can make changes to improve the software. If
Rockbox were not open source, it would have been only a shadow of what
it is now.

And no, let's not start the EAC discussion again.

> Most users lack either the skills or time to make changes to
> software and would not download the source even if it were
> available.

I think you confuse being able to choose for Open Source Software
(which is a political/ethical issue) with the ability to actually
modify it (a technical issue).

> I would not trade my freeware CD audio extraction for open source
> software

Yes, we all know that already. But nobody is asking you to drop your
favourite software. Not even me.

-- Johan
Received on 2004-01-30