Once when sir in his last class said that "the message of free and open source movement is being conveyed wrongly. This was because of the trend that has started of giving opensource softwares for free. This is not what we wanted when the revolution started." Suddenly one thing that struck my mind was that of our INDIA'S FREEDOM STRUGGLE. I started comparing freedom movement with Free and opensource movement and Mahatma Gandhi with Richard Stallman. As Bapu led the freedom struggle, Stallman also is leading this revolution.
The only point that i felt sharing with you is that a revolution might be carried out with full enthusiasm and that need for a healthy change, but there is some not-positive effect or a side effect which is seen after the revolution has started. In the India's freedom struggle, Gandhiji wanted A FREE INDIA but he also wanted a UNITED INDIA. But everywhere riots were taking place. He didn't care for himself and started his fast so that it stops. They were stopped, but the fire inside people belonging to different religions was still there, which ultimately resulted into partition and Gandhiji was helpless. This is not what he wanted. He wanted a "free and united India".
Similarly in the Free and Opensource revolution, this trend of giving software for free started and now many people think that "free" means "0 price". We have to make people understand that "free" means "FREEDOM". In this revolution Richard Stallman wants to make everyone understand the four freedoms. And he wants everyone to implement this. There are attempts made to clear the idea of free software to people. But unlike India's freedom struggle revolution, this revolution is still going on. Its not ended yet. There is still a hope of making everything according to what Stallman or The Free Society wants.
1 comment:
very well written :) excellent comparison
Post a Comment