Re: Just a new way - help would be appreciated
Posted: 29 Dec 2010, 22:11
.
Well, in all fairness, there is FOSS... and there is FOSS*.
The initial demarcation is a project that starts life as FOSS and one that has a second life as FOSS* but started as closed proprietary - WZ falling in the later category.
As an end user I avail myself of both FOSS and paid proprietary software. My criteria is simply what works best for what I want to do. Same with OS's. Right now, between all my devices, I'm running most OS's out there.
Now that accounts for the tech side but not what I call the cultural divide.
This cultural divide can be quickly defined as those who hold to TANSTAAFL and those who think there are vast domains of exception to this. I fall in the former camp and think the real difference between the 2 is that one follows closely doubly entry cost accounting and the other keeps a lot of stuff "off the books" and hidden, thus creating the illusion of "free" across the board.
However, to do this subject justice we must confront what comes formally under the heading of "The Commons" and in our time the related concepts & laws have reached a critical mass in complexity as well as what to do legally in many areas of endeavor going forward.
Until just a few years ago I was very ignorant of this subject till inspired by a friendly polemic with Freddy, I dug in to educate myself - starting with Eric Raymond's The Cathedral and the Bazaar, to all of Lawrence Lessig's work (esp. Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity, to Chris DiBona's Open Sources 2.0: The Continuing Evolution and so on till the most recent work by Lewis Hyde Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership (Aug. 17, 2010) which I believe the most comprehensive of the lot if you have but time enough to study one work on the subject.
All that said.... I value much that has been accomplished by this project while at the same time having my differences in areas of focus (as well, even more so, in the realm of cultural values) and have endeavored to honor both streams with wit, good manners and a fair-minded aplomb. Where I have differed in goals, instead of whining or trying to persuade to my PoV, I have done my own thing through modding, mapping, scripting & the occasional source altering, to satisfy my curiosity in the area of evolving game play from unfinished stock (which has been my main impetus since the spring of '99 and with WZ Creators blessing, encouragement & support from the get go & well into the journey pre-liberation).
Lastly, I do think the game itself would benefit from a different source development approach as articulated here by both Chojun & Seismo. I know all the arguments for consolidation of efforts but there are occasions when that is just not the best thing as the differences are irreconcilable and both PoVs (goals & actions) are entitled to a right to life.
In the end we can agree to disagree without becoming disagreeable or mocking or belittling each other over those differences.
- Rman.
.
Well, in all fairness, there is FOSS... and there is FOSS*.
The initial demarcation is a project that starts life as FOSS and one that has a second life as FOSS* but started as closed proprietary - WZ falling in the later category.
As an end user I avail myself of both FOSS and paid proprietary software. My criteria is simply what works best for what I want to do. Same with OS's. Right now, between all my devices, I'm running most OS's out there.
Now that accounts for the tech side but not what I call the cultural divide.
This cultural divide can be quickly defined as those who hold to TANSTAAFL and those who think there are vast domains of exception to this. I fall in the former camp and think the real difference between the 2 is that one follows closely doubly entry cost accounting and the other keeps a lot of stuff "off the books" and hidden, thus creating the illusion of "free" across the board.
However, to do this subject justice we must confront what comes formally under the heading of "The Commons" and in our time the related concepts & laws have reached a critical mass in complexity as well as what to do legally in many areas of endeavor going forward.
Until just a few years ago I was very ignorant of this subject till inspired by a friendly polemic with Freddy, I dug in to educate myself - starting with Eric Raymond's The Cathedral and the Bazaar, to all of Lawrence Lessig's work (esp. Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity, to Chris DiBona's Open Sources 2.0: The Continuing Evolution and so on till the most recent work by Lewis Hyde Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership (Aug. 17, 2010) which I believe the most comprehensive of the lot if you have but time enough to study one work on the subject.
All that said.... I value much that has been accomplished by this project while at the same time having my differences in areas of focus (as well, even more so, in the realm of cultural values) and have endeavored to honor both streams with wit, good manners and a fair-minded aplomb. Where I have differed in goals, instead of whining or trying to persuade to my PoV, I have done my own thing through modding, mapping, scripting & the occasional source altering, to satisfy my curiosity in the area of evolving game play from unfinished stock (which has been my main impetus since the spring of '99 and with WZ Creators blessing, encouragement & support from the get go & well into the journey pre-liberation).
Lastly, I do think the game itself would benefit from a different source development approach as articulated here by both Chojun & Seismo. I know all the arguments for consolidation of efforts but there are occasions when that is just not the best thing as the differences are irreconcilable and both PoVs (goals & actions) are entitled to a right to life.
In the end we can agree to disagree without becoming disagreeable or mocking or belittling each other over those differences.
- Rman.
.
