On Jan 4, 2008 5:47 PM, dermiste  wrote:

quoted text
> On Jan 4, 2008 11:41 PM, Paul de Weerd  wrote:

> > For some reason, earlier mail on the strawllman-thread did not make it

> > to the list. I'm copying parts of some of these mails inline. Note

> > that both mails were CC:'ed to misc@ (so they were intended to end up

> > on the list. As such, i don't think using them inline here is a

> > problem)

> >

> > > However, I expect you're exaggerating when you say that your situation

> > > is that grave.  There are many jobs people can do in the Netherlands.

> > > If you lost this particular job -- which could happen for many reasons

> > > -- the result would most likely just be some discomfort.

> >

> > I've been working in IT for well over 10 years now. I can promise you

> > that, had I denounced non-free software, I would not have been able to

> > pay for my food or my rent/mortgage for the past 10 years.

> >

> > I very much enjoy working with free software. Some of that stuff is

> > simply amazing. But it is not of this world to think that more than a

> > handful of people can make their living without ever touching non-free

> > software in this world. If you're waiting for this to happen : dont

> > hold your breath.

> >

> > Yes, there are many jobs people can do in the Netherlands (and in

> > other countries). My point is that most (if not all) IT-jobs require

> > the employee to somehow interface with non-free software. In the

> > general case, you can not simply refuse to work with non-free software

> > and expect to keep your job.

> >

> > Paul 'WEiRD' de Weerd

>

> In February 2004, Mr Stallman did a keynote at an event held in Paris

> called "Solutions Linux" (or stg along theses lines) about free software.

> When someone asked him how to make a living of IT without using or

> promoting non-free software, his answer was that you don't have to

> work in the IT field to contribute to free software, and he'd prefer see

> a kernel contributor being a taxi driver than administrating Windows

> workstations (It may not be the very same words, but the intent is the

> same).

>

> FOS projects being what they are, they do not require any kind of

> qualification to participate, only the final product (code, doc) is taken

> in account. So I could be a gardener and contribute to projects I

> estimate worthy. From a very abstract point of view, that's coherent.

>

> But contributing is not an abstract process: a contributor has to run

> into a problem to solve it. Personnally, I never managed to solve a

> problem I couldn't grasp. And as a gardener, I'm not sure software will

> be my first source of problems. Another point is if contributions are

> my only contact with software, the range of my perceptions will be

> greatly narrowed. You can't expect creativity to come from this

> overconstrained setup: solutions often come from the 10.30 coffee

> break, when you discuss with your colleagues.

>

> So, I'm the first one to say we should judge on the results not the look,

> but I think it's way harder to write quality code when not in IT.

I thought you were leading up to a last clause of, "but I think it's

way harder to know which quality code to write, when not in IT." To

which I would have answered, "But what about the public bug tracking

system? Wouldn't that suffice for highlighting, to a person not

employed in IT (but still a hacker), the code that needs to be

written?"
Todd