Comments on: It’s my choice dammit http://bytebaker.com/2010/02/04/its-my-choice-dammit/ Computer Science isn't a science and it's not about computers Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:19:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Shrutarshi Basu http://bytebaker.com/2010/02/04/its-my-choice-dammit/#comment-664 Sun, 28 Feb 2010 02:03:35 +0000 http://bytebaker.com/?p=1018#comment-664 In my own case, there was a certain amount of guilt about buying the Touch. I don’t like closed platforms and I think the way the iPhone device locks down the computer is really frightening. But I sometimes really get sick and tired of nnot having stuff work easily (and I have neither the time nor the inclination to make ALL my tools). And I don’t want to use a tiny 9inch netbook because it’s the only device that runs completely free software.

]]> By: tycho http://bytebaker.com/2010/02/04/its-my-choice-dammit/#comment-662 Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:29:49 +0000 http://bytebaker.com/?p=1018#comment-662 I see these “i love open source but I’m not a fanatic about it” messages from time to time, and even sometimes feel compelled to issue comments along these lines, and I wonder what these all mean in the larger picture.

Is it an expression of guilt at some sort of entrepreneurial spirit? Do we cringe when RMS says something in a way that we might not have said, and want to distance ourselves from him? Have the politics of contemporary issues overridden (various liberal causes, the current economy, Hati, etc.)

Because the truth is that we probably are fanatical, by some term. Also, I tend to think that most “choices” aren’t really free in the sense that they’re always constrained by external factors. You may think you have some choice, but really the freedom to choose among a selection of choices is hardly freedom at all.

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