re: re: freedom

[Gangolf Jobb <jobb at stat dot uni-muenchen dot de>]

oh - just one last word,

it's annoying to have a great numerical library that does almost all
you want, but not be able to use it just because there is a handful
of fanatics prohibiting that. the possibility to link the gsl into 
proprietary software would not at all make the gsl non-free.

moreover, it's annoying that a great numerical libribrary is trying to 
split the world of programmers in two parts, namely the "good" ones 
producing gpl'd programes versus the other ones, which are all "bad".

- gangolf


>It's annoying to have some great program that does almost what you
>want, but not be able to modify it because you don't have the code.
>The manufacturer may not have the expertise or willingness to make
>changes for one customer, and even if they do, it would cost much
>more and take longer.  Using free software allows customizability.
>Having the source does this, but science requires reproducibility.
>If I make a change to the source of proprietary software, I can't
>share that with the community to verify my results.  Also, sometimes
>it's hard/impossible to get additional licenses for an older version
>of a program which is no longer supported.  Or maybe you want it on
>a different computer system.  Maybe you changed jobs and want to use
>the software you are used to, but the manufacturer went bankrupt and
>the new owner doesn't even know they own the program.  With free
>software, you just keep a copy around and use it as desired.  With
>non-free software, you have to spend more money to pay more
>programmers to write a different program to replace functionality
>that you had in the first place.  There are many benefits to free
>software that non-free software just doesn't have, and when
>programmers choose to give users these benefits, that's their
>freedom.