🚀 go-pugleaf

From reading his posting, I think that John Drexler believes 
that RMS is out to destroy the current way of life for the 
software industry.  I certainly believe this.  But is it "harm",
or just a sea-change which will temporarily discomfit certain 
individuals and corporations?

Consider the poor messenger-boy, whose livelihood was destroyed
by the telephone.  Did this development "harm" the world?    
Or are there now millions of people employed to make and maintain 
telephones, exchanges, modems, and every other kind of equipment
that developed from this innovation?

Other things might have an equal effect on the lot of the humble 
programmer.  Someone might invent a system which accepts a short,
spoken desription of any software tool, and codes it up automatically.
(Is this more or less likely than the success of GNU: discuss :-)
Now what?  Should we hold rallies in the streets to burn all copies?

There is much more software that is "free off the net" than GNU: 
PD software, X, TeX, etc.  Equally, there is a lot of software 
that is "free" by dint of illegal copying.  Somehow, the industry
survives.

Bryan Boreham

Speaking for myself, not my employer.