Re: AM-INFO digest 28 "FREE"

["Kendall G. Clark" <kclark@computek.net>]

  Glenn,
  
  I'm the one who said you can't get more egalitarian than a truly free product;
  I was referring plainly to Linux, not to any of MS's free giveaways.
  
  There are enormous differences between the kind of freedom embodied by Linux
  and that embodied by MS free giveaways.
  
  If you want to know what I mean, please contact me by private email.
  
  I've posted enough ``informationally empty'' messages recently to this list.
  
  Best,
  
  	Kendall Clark
  
  On Tue, 11 Nov 1997, Glenn T. Livezey wrote:
  
  >The bait in a trap is "FREE" if you can avoid 
  >tripping the trigger. The first sample of drugs on the 
  >street are often "FREE". Microsoft, and its wholly or 
  >partially owned subsidiaries (other wise known as 
  >"business partners") often represent software as 
  >"FREE" when its license is built into the price of 
  >whatever bundled product the consumer is 
  >consciously buying. Where have you been hiding 
  >in this age of Marketing (the capital is intentional)? 
  >"FREE" is freely used in place of "not directly 
  >purchased". And there is nothing "egalitarian" 
  >about a tax break, especially when it is worth more 
  >than the "FREE" product could be sold for on the 
  >open market (ie retail as vs. "street price"). 
  >Egalitarian implies the lofty moral ground of equal 
  >rights. "FREE" often means you can have it if you 
  >meet the hidden, delayed or indirect costs of the 
  >offer. We may all be equal in the opportunity to 
  >accept a "FREE" offer, but we are obviously not 
  >equal in our understanding of the ultimate price.
  >
  >  
  >Glenn T. Livezey, Ph.D.
  >Director of Perinatal Research
  >Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine
  >Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
  >University of Nebraska Medical Center
  >600 South 42nd Street
  >Omaha, NE 68198-3255
  >Phone- 402-559-8064
  >FAX- 402-559-7126
  >e-mail glivezey@netserv.unmc.edu
  >
  >
  >
  >
  >
  
  --
  Linux is free. Life is good.
  
  -- 
  We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have
  swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of
  wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have
  hidden in as if caves. I wish for all this to be marked on my body
  when I am dead. I believe in such cartography--to be marked by nature,
  not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and
  women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books. We are
  not owned or monogamous in our taste or experience. All I desired was
  to walk upon such an earth that had no maps.
  
  			Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient