[Marxism] Re: Software choice is a revolutionary act!

[mds <zenporcupinegrind@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

There is no doubt that the free software movement offers the potential
for social collaboration and technological progress - efforts invested
in progressive needs-based software in place of that which is seen to
be the best possible expansion for capital. Microsoft's business ethic
is often cited - rightly so, of course - with regards to this modern
aspect of developing the means of production.

As 'intense red' rightly alludes to, GPL/BSD licensed code holds real
potential for progress. However, his demarcation of "a choice between a
commercial capitalist offering and a communally-developed free offering
of superior quality" is dubious at best. Free software production
doesn't necessitate superior quality. Nor is it simply a crude choice
between capitalism and communism, as is being suggested here.

Yes, social production of software, and all technology, has the
capacity for outstripping production wholly within the context of
capital. However, the environment in which this is undertaken at
present - hobbyist coding being a large proportion, resources being
scattered (the internet is not the *best* means for collective
endeavour), the lack of focused efforts that _are_ present within the
commercial sphere all have to be taken into account. Projects such as
Linux distributions or GPL'd software have been known to languish (HURD
as just one minor example), bloat or get side-tracked from original
goals. These aren't necessarily criticisms, just pointers that it's not
a clear-cut decision between inferior-capitalist-software and
superior-communist-software. It simply ain't true.

Of course, proprietary software has its faults too, numerous and
sometimes sinister (standards evasions in IE would be the most
pertinent example here). I don't mean to detract from these. However,
let's not get carried away with black-vs-white approaches to free
software.

regards,
Marc

On Saturday, September 4, 2004, at 04:48  pm, Intense Red wrote:

> (Warning, a rant is building, but I'll do my best to keep it civil and
> to tie
> it into Marxism. :-)
>
> > Suggesting mozilla, etc. was a bit problematic since I am using a
> > dial-up
> > right now and the new browser would probably take a week to download!
>
>    Bzzzt.  Wrong answer!  Mozilla Firefox is 4.7 MB.
> <http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/>  That's less than a 30
> minute
> download.  (Free software is typically very efficient in terms of disk
> space.)
>
>    For an investment of 30 minutes, you can then dump Internet
> Explorer.
> Mozilla Firefox will perform equally or better than IE, and also
> eliminate
> 99% of web pop-up ads, spyware/adware, and will be a huge improvement
> in
> security over IE.
>
>    Better still, you'll be participating in a communal movement.
> Mozilla is
> "free software".  That's not only free as in "no-cost" but also free
> as in
> "liberty."  The free software movement is not per-se anti-capitalist
> (though
> many of its leading proponents/authors have left and/or libertarian
> tendencies), but it does threaten the entire capitalist system of
> intellectual "property", particular intellectual "property" in regards
> to the
> computer software industry.
>
>    So you have two choices:
>
> (1) You can continue to support the country's biggest software
> monopoly,
> Microsoft, and it's Republican head, the richest guy in the world and
> son of
> Washington state's wealthiest banking family, Bill Gates, as it works
> to
> strengthen intellectual "property" laws and to restrict people's
> choices.
> Or...
>
> (2) You can take your first step towards independence and creating a
> truly
> communal software industry based on free, open sharing by adopting
> Mozilla or
> some other free software web browser.
>
>    By choosing option #2 you will be opting for more secure and more
> stable
> software, with far less privacy issues (this is objectively stated by
> major
> computer security firms and even the US Dept of Homeland Security).
> You will
> also be telling every web site you visit that you prefer free software
> rather
> than Microsoft's restrictive commercial offering.
>
>    In short, you have a choice between a commercial capitalist
> offering and a
> communally-developed free offering of superior quality.  But, of
> course, it's
> going to take you a half-hour to choose the latter.
>
>    The choice *is* revolutionary.  In essence, you can now choose
> between
> capitalism and communism.  That, of course, is wildly overstated, but
> the
> choice has significant meaning.
>
> (Since I don't want to veer too far off the general topic, I'll spare
> you my
> rant and the logic of why any leftist should really be running the
> communally-developed GNU/Linux or *BSD for your computer operating
> system
> instead off Microsoft Windows or the MacOS.)
>
> --
> If computers have made me more productive, how come I'm not working
> less?
> Who's getting the profits from my increased productivity?!
>
>
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__________________________________________________
M. D. Simpson
zenporcupinegrind <at> breathe <dot> com

"Whoever worships the accomplished fact is incapable of preparing the
future."
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