Re: jive - what is the message being sent here

[Nicholas Merrill <lists@mojo.calyx.net>]

On Tue, 14 Dec 1999, Rick Pettit wrote:

> 	I think running OpenBSD is about choices.  People who do not like
> to have to make choices and would rather have the choices made for them
> run Windows.  I cannot imagine an OpenBSD user that cannot figure out how
> to remove material they consider offensive from their system (and in this
> case they would have to go out of their way to put it on in the first
> place).

>  I like to make choices.  I don't condone racism or racist ideas,
> but I must say removing this port on the basis that it is offensive to
> some scares me.  I think the port should stay.  I have chosen not to
> install jive in the past, and have no plans to install it in the future,
> yet I cannot say how thankful I am that I have been given the oppurtinity
> to choose for myself.  

In the same respect, the choice is always open to the user to download
jive from some archive somewhere and install it

Why do people keep framing this in terms of freedom of choice?
Please read my next paragraphs below

This is silly.  Are you saying that if a program is not in the official
ports tree that you are not capable of downloading it, untarring it, 
and typing 'make ; make install' ?

How does not having something in the ports tree remove your ability
to choose for yourself what to do with your system?  Do you mean to
say that you feel that your choice in programs is limited to
what is dictated to you by the port maintainers?

If that is what you're saying then you don't really have freedom of
choise after all.

But of course we do always have the freedom to install whatever we choose,
regardless of what is in the official packages or in ports.


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