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[ox-en] Liberte', E'galite', Fraternite' (Free Software ideology)



Hi. I'm a new member of this list (I guess there are a lot of those, after
you recently got slashdotted ;)), so I hope I'm not making a fool of myself,
but here it goes.

A few months ago I wrote an essay which seems relevant to the topic of
this list, so maybe some of you would be interested in reading it.
You can find it in http://nadav.harel.org.il/essays/lfe.html (it was
never published anywhere - it's just something I felt I *had* to write,
because it was an issue I felt strongly about).

The essay discusses the potential benefits of free software to Society,
which are far greater than the usual "free beer" and "free speech" senses
that people usually mention, or the benefits that "open source" supporters
usually quote. The central theme of the essay is to take the slogan of the
French Revolution, "Libertי, ?galitי, Fraternitי" (meaning liberty, equality
and fraternity), and to demonstrate (including evidence and many hyperlinks)
how each of these ideals, and not just the often-mentioned liberty, is an
important part of the free software movement.

Some of these ideas have already been mentioned by other free-software
activists (most notably Richard M. Stallman) in their writings, but the
essay's central theme, the "Libertי, ?galitי, Fraternitי" slogan,
was apprently never expanded on to such detail (it was briefly mentioned in
a lecture that Stallman gave in French 3 years ago, a link to which is
provided in the essay).

I hope you'll enjoy it.

-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |      Friday, Dec 14 2001, 29 Kislev 5762
nyh math.technion.ac.il             |-----------------------------------------
Phone: [PHONE NUMBER REMOVED], ICQ 13349191 |Live as if you were to die tomorrow,
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |learn as if you were to live forever.
_______________________
http://www.oekonux.org/


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