Why Free Software is a Con-Trick

[greggh]

http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2008/ ... trick.html

Now, how does free software generally operate? It begins with a call for *help* - which means that it elicits the same deep human response as the con-trick described in the original post.

Here are two classics of the free software pigeon-drop con-trick genre, one from RMS:

Starting this Thanksgiving I am going to write a complete Unix-compatible software system called GNU (for Gnu's Not Unix), and give it away free(1) to everyone who can use it. Contributions of time, money, programs and equipment are greatly needed.

The other from Linus:

Hello everybody out there using minix -

I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things).

[dann]

Wow, what a misleading title.

[greggh]

Wow, what a misleading title.

I changed the topic title to the actual article title. Although, I don't think it's any less misleading. The craziness of the article title and comparison to a con trick is the reason I posted it.

[dann]

I changed the topic title to the actual article title. Although, I don't think it's any less misleading. The craziness of the article title and comparison to a con trick is the reason I posted it.

Yeah, I did not mean your title was off, just the title of his post in general. It sets one up to expect a negative point of view from the start. The title smacks as one of those anti-Linux, FUD pieces. But it is not.

[iReact]

i have to agree that the title is actually appropriate once you read the article.

very creative use of language.

Kudos to the author.