On Mon, 2006-06-26 at 12:22 +0200, Georg C. F. Greve wrote:
ah> Right. But I guess what I'm asking implicitly is, what is the ah> goal of the GBN?
Please see my mails of last week, they should be in the archive.
They don't really answer the question, though. I get that it's about giving free software businesses an advantage, but what is it seeking to actually do? For example, would it be more concerned with giving a higher profile to existing free software businesses, or would it prioritise getting non-free businesses to change their methods?
All comparisons are limited. I find the comparison with food limited to the extent of being misleading, and not very useful, to be honest.
Software has very strong network effects, that apply force on others, and take away their freedom of choice in a digital society.
I don't think it's an unfair comparison. Food also has network effects, but they tend to be in production rather than consumption. The take-up of sterile GM cash crops is one good example: it's the DRM of the seed world. The production of salad is another: there are large regions of the world, such as Kenya, where people are in drought conditions and are ill from thirst because the water is being used to feed lettuces. The choice to eat out-of-season produce in the West definitely does affect people in other regions of the world - it's not an issue of personal ethics.
Of course it's not a exact comparison, but then nothing ever is. I think we can learn a lot from Fair Trade type systems, though.
We should never support proprietary software. But, I'm not sure of the utility of exclusively supporting those who never produce or support proprietary software though. We've already seen that there is no fine line between those who are "good" and those who are "bad": Shane's point about how long you should be allowed to "convert" customers is a good one, and doubtless there are an infinity of other situations like that.
If the GBN is solely about applauding those businesses who do work with only free software, then I suppose it will have its niche. I don't see that type of system encouraging other businesses to change, though, and that strikes me as the more important issue.
Cheers,
Alex.