William Tracy <wtr### [at] calpolyedu> wrote:
> It's my own damn
> computer, and I'm going to use it whatever way I want, thank you very much.

  You can't. Laws prohibit you from doing certain things, even if it's
just your "own computer". Distributing illegal material is one example.

> Microsoft tells people how they can use their software

  It's their right, both ethical and legal. You don't have to use their
software if you don't agree with their terms.

> Apple cripples their software so that it only runs on Apple hardware.

  Not true.

> Hollywood, the American music industry, and the video game industry put
> "DRM" anti-copying software on all their products.

  Well, it's their products and they can do whatever they want with them,
exactly like you can do whatever you want with your computer.

> Linus lets me use Linux any freaking way I want.

  Not true. Linux is bound to the GPL license, which limits what you can
do with it. For example, you can't take the linux kernel and build a
closed-source commercial product with it. You certainly can not do whatever
you want with it.

> The license for the POV stable releases gives me a degree of freedom
> that I'm willing to live with. The POV betas are crippled to a degree
> that I won't put up with.

  So it's just a question of principle, not of logical reasoning?
You protest the fact that you can't "do whatever you want" with the
betas?

> While I'm ranting, why the hell does the POV team sit on the source code
> for each new revision until the "final release"?

  Odd question coming from a person who just a few paragraphs earlier
defended his own right to do whatever he wants with what he owns.

  So you want to be able to do whatever you like with what you own, but
you don't want to allow others to do the same? That sounds a bit like a
double standard.

> Would letting people
> see it somehow violate its sanctity? Is it not pretty enough? Or is the
> POV team just so anal-retentive that they are frightened that someone
> just might *improve* on their beta code? Shock, horror.

  The reason is that the pov-team has high standards for quality. They
want to distribute a stable, well-tested system, not a barely-working
development beta version full of known bugs.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message