

Free Software Documentary “Software Wars” in Need of Support - glazemaster
http://www.thepowerbase.com/2013/01/free-software-documentary-software-wars-in-need-of-support/

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BUGHUNTER
The Indiegogo Project Site gives you a deep insight about the trustworthiness
of the producers.

<http://www.indiegogo.com/SoftwareWars/>

For $1000 Dollar they are offering product placement.

Independent journalism != advertising.

Very disappointing.

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jack57
The sensationalist "* Wars" name certainly is not helping it within the
technical community.

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jspthrowaway2
If this film were instead about how proprietary software people, who are
_never, ever_ going to disappear, and free software people, who _really_ want
them to, could get along and work together for the betterment of computing
over ideals, I'd donate 1% of the funding goal right now. I'm 100% serious and
have the $1,500 ready to draw a check upon to put my money where my mouth is.

As it stands, it's instead about digging in to the trenches and going to war
against proprietary, making proprietary evil, brushing aside the genuine
problems with free software to laud it as the one true path; because of that,
I hope the funding fails and it goes nowhere. It's just more of the same
rhetoric that hasn't worked, and that free software cried foul about when it
was turned upon them ("Linux is communism", "Gmail can suspend you and you
disappear", different FUD, same tactic).

Watching proprietary/free slug back and forth at each other for most of my
adult life has been just as tiring as watching red/blue snipe back and forth
in U.S. politics at the expense of progress. Just look at the fiscal cliff
drama and the numerous partisan battlegrounds before that. _There is no
progress in a war[1]. Period. Full stop._ You make this fight, you impede the
very progress you seek to suddenly enable. It's just a contradictory position.
You get one or the other. You get progress or a battle. Pick one. Spoiler: if
you pick the battle, it's never going to be won by either side.

It's why I voted for Obama, because he promised to bring each side together --
naturally, he hit Washington politics and couldn't do diddly-squat of what he
promised, but I still had hope. I think working together between these two
camps is much more realizable, and the time for "it's us or them" is long
since past. The book makes the claim that free software will pave the way of
progress, but to get there it has to defeat proprietary software first, which
is also capable of its own progress in a way.

I already hear you slamming "reply" to tell me why moderate is not an
acceptable position in this fight, and I fully expect the talking points from
either side on why. Just know that I realize them to be talking points even
before you've typed them.

[1]: Except for those making guns.

~~~
jhuni
I want my computer to be my own personal property and not the private property
of a corporate tyranny like Microsoft or Apple. I will never take away control
over my personal computer by installing a proprietary program and there are
many others like me that will _never_ go away.

~~~
jspthrowaway2
What's in your BIOS? What's in your NIC's firmware? What's in the firmware of
the router you're wire{d,lessly connected} to? What's in the microcode of your
CPU? What's in your south and north bridges? What's in your USB controller?
What's in your display's firmware, if you're running with monitors? Every
single chip in your machine? The design of the motherboard itself? The
architecture of the system?

What's in your modem? What's in your Xbox? What's in your cable box? What's in
your car? What's in your microwave? What's in your automated toll tag and the
receiver that processes your payment? What's in your digital thermostat?
What's in your mobile phone? What's in the _baseband_ of your mobile phone? In
the cell tower that's talking to your mobile phone? In the computer systems
routing your calls? In the SCADA systems in the factory that built your mobile
phone?

What's in the systems keeping you alive right now in your apartment building,
home, or neighborhood? In the power grid? At the power station? In the water
system? In the computer flying the aircraft? In the computers tracking the
aircraft so they don't collide? In the mail system? In the traffic light
system? On the Mars rovers? In the systems watching for a tornado headed for
you? Or a nuclear missile? Or an Iranian flotilla?

What's running on Blogger, who's hosting your blog?

Sure, you can come back to me and say that some of those have examples of free
software or _utilize_ free software in some way; I noticed in particular that
the trailer mentions a lot of the power grid runs _on_ Linux. But I don't see
"Power Grid v2.0" on Savannah, because the vast majority of planet Earth is
built upon a proprietary model. To dispense with _all_ of that and say that
free software is the _only_ way is an incredibly myopic view that focuses only
upon the personal computer. The personal computer is not the only software in
the universe -- not even close. To conquer proprietary software to benefit the
personal computer, you're also dispensing with _millions_ , perhaps _billions_
or even _trillions_ of man hours to build the life that we know today. For
what? An ideal? It's ironic, too, because free software is built upon
collaboration of the whole, but they can't dream of collaborating with the
proprietary whole.

Let's give you the benefit of the doubt and say free software is the absolute
best thing in the world. IPv6 might be the best Internet protocol in the
world. There will be private networks using IPv4 until all of us are dust in
the ground. Metric might be the best measurement system in the world.
Americans and, to a lesser extent the British, will be using imperial units
until all of us are dust in the ground. Momentum is a powerful force, and when
we're talking about the mind-bogglingly enormous portfolio of human innovation
that was _paid for_ by proprietary organizations, that's a _huge fucking
aircraft carrier_ worth of momentum to stop on a dime.

What do you want, as a free software proponent? Do you want proprietary
software gone? Okay, organize reinventing planet Earth. I've given you a small
list to get started. You can't win on the personal computer alone. There will
_always_ be compromises. I'm saying you should compromise more. I guarantee
you that Siemens is never going to wake up one day and say, "gee, we should
write that new SCADA controller using a completely free software model;
there's no need to provide any competitive advantage to our company".
Shareholders would bust down the door in minutes. Companies have given you the
life you know today because of the system given to us before you and I were
even born. Maybe they're inherently evil; then, I pose to you the question,
what is evil? Keeping my lights on with proprietary grid management might be
evil. Shit, then, I like evil.

We have the system we have. Many of the world's economies are capitalist. You
operate in the system you are given and take full advantage of it. If the
world wasn't wired the way it was, perhaps you'd have a shot at the utopia
that you're envisioning; really, I _do_ see the benefit. I promise. I see the
benefit of a world without violence, as well, but it's just _never_ going to
happen and we have to cope as well as we can. The only world without violence
will be a world without living creatures.

I don't know if you can tell from this minor essay that I wrote to you (and, I
apologize for drowning you in it), but people working together for the common
good is the single most important thing to me as a person. It makes me feel
horrible that humans default not to getting along. Life is really, really
confusing and partisanship like this confuses me even more. I'll never
understand why humans can't agree on the simplest things and do everything in
their power to discredit and mock the other side, and it's something that
tortures me as a human being on occasion. When I see Obama and Boehner go toe-
to-toe on what should be a pretty simple governmental decision, and the full
weight of rhetoric and disagreement gets thrown behind each side for _days_ of
our precious time, I just want to grab them and shake them and say "we're all
humans trying to figure out this existence together! Is this fight _really_
worth it in the long run? _What have you gained?_ "

I hope, after death, I get an answer. Otherwise, wow. What a weird existence.

~~~
warmwaffles
This essay was really long and to be honest, really far away from your
original point. I agree with you. I would much rather see a documentary that
wasn't so slanted towards proprietary hate. I enjoy using my Mac to develop on
and running my production code in Linux. I enjoy using my Windows desktop to
play games and occasionally develop on as well.

I'd like to see this movie dig in to what the differences are and that "Free"
software doesn't mean it's free. You can't just multiply the cost by a big fat
zero. Man hours were spent on that piece of software and someone has to
maintain the system.

I would also like to see them dive into Oracle buying Sun, Google acquiring
YouTube. Linus' switch to Git. The split between Common Lisp and Scheme.
Companies acquiring others for patents and the differences between MIT and GPL
etc...

~~~
jspthrowaway2
I wandered, I will admit. I didn't go into that comment with a plan. It grew
organically and tapped into some deep-seated feelings. By the end of it, I was
kind of scared. I think Act I, the first five paragraphs, are a direct
response to the commenter I replied to. The tangential remainder is
extrapolating the point of view itself.

(You know a comment is terrifyingly long when I'm giving it acts.)

If you read the book, the movie is probably going to be nothing that you're
hoping for, for what it's worth.

