Free(dom)

In a conversation about non free file formats (Can’t use PowerPoint to do my bio presentation. Sorry…. Can I use Open Office?) with one of my lab partners, she became understandably confused. I noticed a look of dispair rising exponentially as I talked; NFF, DRM, license types etc. can be a bit much at first glace, so I let it slide. Her interruption however, was a slap in the face: “I just don’t get what it’s all about..” Is that how we look as a community to the general population? Geeks rambling on about 2 lines of text in a license or 6 lines of code in a program that we hardly think twice about, until it crashes?

Obviously this is a gross exaggeration of the conversation, as we have moved past that a society in whole, and my arguement is based on an account of my life. 1) Overexaggeration, 2) Story. 2 logical fallicies in one sentence? Wow, if Red_Herring wasn’t already taken, I might consider that as a nick. Actually though, RJ posted a blog that got me thinking quite a bit. In particlar, one sentence stood out:

Well the big appeal to getting a fancy shmancy Mac is the looks and OSX.

Here, we see more of the underlying fundemental issues come into play. Most people, what they are looking for in a computer, is not a super stable, editable, free software. They are not looking for quality or angsting for a quick fix to a pesty bug. “M$ has a majority market share in the new desktop PC marketplace”, Bug #1. Well no, they dont own desktop PCs. They don’t dominate the OS market either. It’s much simpler and evil then that.

M$ has power over GUI and has the market on the little windows flag that shows on disk boot.

Yes, they do more then that, they make tons of money with support and technological advancement, but all of this is based on booting a system up and seeing that little flag pop up. Is there an honest difference between OpenOffice and M$ word? Is a IE user handicapped in Fx? Far from it actually. I’ve had several moments where the logic of an arguement is so mind boggling disjointed that I’ve had to literally walk away.

Case One: Mom is using Open Office to do an outline and can’t figure out how to do numbering/bullets. After listening to her ramble on about ‘If this was M$, I would be done already’ for a minute or two, I move the mouse cursor over about an inch and walk away.

Case Two: This one was really bad, but if you knew the person (X for sake of not putting anyone on blast) you would understand. P is short for posingaspopular. The conversation was roughly,

X: Hey you know about Word right?

P: I know of it, yea.

X: No I mean you’ve know how to use it and stuff?

P: I use OpenOffice. I have used Word before but OO is better and does what I want it to do.

X: But you have more experience with Word right?

P: … Yea but I KNOW MORE ABOUT OO THAN I DO WORD. (caps is for emphasis, my own during posting)

X: Okay cool, I’m trying to this outline and Word is being uncool and not letting me do what I want it to do.

P: Yea that’s because it’s defective by design. Download OO and if you have a problem, let me know, I’ll help you out.

X: …But I’m using Word….

Summation: What is the big deal about Word? About M$? It’s just a GUI, it’s just a name, it is basically a tool that you use. Most people don’t live, breate, sleep technology, and the ones who do are the ones arguing about FL/OSS/libre software. Much like slaves among other disenfranchised people were the ones arguing for freedom while the rest of the nation walked away. Even Abrahman Lincoln was not so much anti-slave as he was pro-Union; during his presidential campaign he ran as a moderate on the issue of slave rights.

What I’m trying to say is that it’s not so much bad software, hard to switch (I used this line myself, now I see how bunk it was), hardware demands or format incapability (Feisty Fawn Herd 4 Migration Assist). I know that computer users aren’t hated by the general society and trust me, I would know, after all I WAS the Time Person of the Year 2006. Web 2.0 has exploded, based on… Linux. That’s right. Servers, academics, Nasa spacestations, the Internet. It’s all about Linux. In fact, you would have to be an idiot to not use Linux (GNOME users, the opposite refers to you ;D). But that is what we say about slavery, in retrospect (and publicly).

If the point isn’t clear, it’s not M$ that is holding Ubuntu back. It’s capitalism. Software libre is going against everything that the general market has done in the past 400+ years. We are fighting a guerilla communist war for our freedom. I know that my brother Freddy (Admiral_Chicago) hates me for saying so, being the strong capitalist that he is, but it is true. Think about it in terms of McDonalds. The service isn’t based on quality (45cent burgers? Alternatly- Taco Bell uses Grade E meat), it is not based on service (how good is a 10 second meal) or any such thing. They are based on predictability, image and a general American complex.

For those unaware, the quality of McDonalds food is heavily regulated, so as to a specific angle of depression from which the fries are salted (if I remember my geometry), fry tempature, serving time. It is the same in sweatshops. This is, I repeat, this is NOT freedom. This is not how we should live as a people. Therein lies the problem. We need bad software, we need a certain degree of chaos and disorder. This causes the market to open up and spit out a resolution, and at the end of the day, someone goes home and collects the pay check. Bumming code, logical extensions of systems, software that just works right. All of these principles are just given goals in computer logic systems, but they run contrary to everything that exists in real life. Binary doesn’t work when you have 6 billion people. They all need work and cutting back the growing urban sprawl is not a viable option.

This is why the market, capitalims, people in general fight against ‘Something better’. Even if they get their freedom, it runs counter intuitive to everything they know, namely survival. We as a people won’t stop having sex, but switching to an easier, simpler OS that will make the bloated, large and illogically bad M$ useless? Great from a user standpoint, but what about a social standpoint. Ubuntu/Linux is doing some great work, especially from the techno-political view of Stallman (et al), but it is sadly TOO forward thinking. Until we can reconcile the capitalism marketplace with small, simple solutions, great programs like Ubuntu will always be in the counter culture. The obvious catch is, how does capitalism sustain inefficency? I need to think that one out some more.

Someone’s dad once said, “How can it be good if you don’t pay for it?’” I heard this at the Chi Ubuntu Loco Meeting (Chi Ubuntu Represent!) but if you want Internet points, let me know. Well the point here is that Freedom, real freedom, is the ability to create the world you want and manipulate it in to your liking. Utalitarianism/Social Contract Argument aside, the frustration is obvious when one is talking about the software. Freedom! What is there not to get? Well, it is a bit more complicated then that, as bitter of a medicine as it is.

One note that I will make is that I use the terms Free software, Open Source Software, software Libre, public domain, Free License Software, Free Speech Software etc. interchangably. These all describe different shades of freedom, limitations etc. but that could matter less to me. If you want to pay for your software and someone wants to sell it, that is okay by me. If you want to restrict what I (emphasis I) can do with my software however, then we have a problem. That is the way I see it. You can argue semantics, syntax, word choice, split hairs all you want, but if you write/respond to me for the specific reason of word choice, I will not refer back to you. I refuse to become hung up in a red herring such as free software versus open source software meanings. While they may have different meanings, DRM and other license types are of LESS freedom, MORE restricions then the ones we usually talk about.

One day *knocks on wood* everyone will use Linux and OSS. On that day, I will argue word meaning until my lungs collapse. Until that day, I will not, as I would rather spend the time that was spent blowing hot air (I’m from Chicago and we have a reputation for it, but I am NOT a politician) discussing marketing strategy, bugs, trouble shooting, new releases, graphics, hardware crashes, and other fascinating topics.

Thanks for reading, thank you even more for putting up with my random, meaningless, disjointed and incoherent ramblings.

-Eddie Martinez CC, NC

ps. Note the Creative Common, Non Commercial. It’s my preference, and as stated by the last full paragraph, I have no interest in reconsidering the choice. That should read: No interest in spending the time, NOT no interest reconsdering if I am right or wrong. I can be convinced, if the arguement is worth the time.