ongoing — The Last Emperor:
Tim Bray notes some conflicting ideas about Open Source as a business proposition and, as excerpted below, a political statement . . .
Choosing software is not a neutral act. It must be done consciously; the debate over free and proprietary software can’t be limited to the differences in the applications’ features and ergonomics. To choose an operating system, or software, or network architecture is to choose a kind of society. We can no longer pretend that free and commercial software, or Internet standards and protocols, are just tools. We have to admit at least that they are political tools. After all, fire and the printing press are ‘just tools.’
Part of that political decision-making goes to how much control and authority you want to keep and how much you’re willing to cede to a vendor. Defining capacity, performance, and stability/maintainability are all very well, but there are intangibles to consider as well. As people are finding with the perpetual virus/worm threats, instability, and lack of choice with the Leading Brand, maybe they can decide where they want to go today by themselves.