> Perhaps you're *USING* these 4 files to install the adobe flash player
quoted text
> on your machine (your example a little bit later in this mail seems to
> indicate you have at least installed it). That's non-free software
> you've installed, but you are free to do so. Then, to you, those four
> small files are not so useless, are they ?
>

Okay, I didn't install it. But it's like saying 'There is no proof
that the Makefiles won't work unless at least one person has installed
them and verified". In any case, I put forward the argument that the
Makefiles are useless because no single person has reported a
successful install with them. BooHoo!

quoted text
> But you're not complaining that these (FREE) files are useless.
> There's almost 5000 ports in the tree now, you are not using them all
> (you're not even using all the ports for free programs) so there's a
> lot more to complain about if that was your gripe. I've made an effort
> to reply to your argument but we were discussing the free-ness of
> OpenBSD, not the usefulness. Please stick to the subject and do not
> try to divert the discussion to unrelated matters.

No, i'm talking about the usefulness of your supposedly free (and
useful) makefiles in installing nonfree software.

quoted text
>
> Here's a nice trick. On any OpenBSD system simply do the following :
>
>         ftp http://tinyurl.com/83kyc
>

Have you performed the above step too? Shame on you for using
Microsoft PowerPoint .. or whatever it is you people use.

quoted text
> Et voila ! You now have non-free software on your system. It is the
> Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer (it's gratis (doesn't cost money) but it's
> not open source). You did this with free software (ftp from OpenBSD) !
> Ohnoes ! That software (OpenBSD ftp) isn't free, I can use it to
> download non-free software !
>
> Boohoo. Now explain again how this makes OpenBSD any less free.
>
> After your 'make install' in /usr/ports/www/opera-flashplugin, *YOU*
> have installed libflashplayer.so on your system. Why does that make
> OpenBSD any less free ?
>

Like I already replied to someone: They put a cigarette pack in
OpenBSD with the warning: 'Smoking causes Cancer'. They say it's there
but you're not supposed to smoke it. It's not going to harm you unless
you smoke it. Do you see the analogy?

-- 
Karthik
http://guilt.bafsoft.net