That's all well. But this is, as the GP pointed out, about different subcultures in the same country, using different dialects.

Spot on.

I'm still grateful for Roxton's post though, if only for getting acquainted with the term "mansplain".

This doesn't make sense. If Java is the right tool, then I should use "okey-dokey", if C# is the right tool, I should use Groovy, and if C++ is the right tool (is it ever, though?) then it would be ok to use Thats?

You miss the bigger picture because you are focusing on details.

Google is a real mega corp almost the size of Microsoft and Oracle. Google is built on free software and mathematics. And Google would not be possible if free software did not exist.

It is you, Viol8, that is on the wrong train.

The embryo to the Internet was created before you could actually copyright software. It was created in open collaboration, funded by the US government.

The Internet as we know it today would not exist if there was no GCC, BIND, BSD, Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl, Python.

The Internet and free software are two world-changing concepts that are evolving in a symbiotic manner; one is not possible without the other.

Exactly! The principles of free software is transforming the world: Open collaboration. Wikipedia, Creative Commons.

In hindsight, it will likely be hard for people to understand how Stallman could be viewed as such a radical.

And it will be very hard to understand how some people became among the richest in the world by selling software.

AC compared RMS to a beggar, asking for money for himself.

Urging Google to "give away" VP8 is more akin to someone asking for money for somebody else. To amend AC's flawed analogy: a Red Cross collector.

Then again, the FSF never asked for money, but contributing value, so I think it would be wise to end the money analogies altogether.

Really? Stallman asked you for money? Funny, because I never heard about him asking for anything in return for GCC and GDB. Intel, on the other hand...

Intel® Compiler Suite Professional Edition for Linux: $1,349

Whoa!

As FlyingBishop said here before me, quid pro quo. A lot of people owe RMS and the FSF a lot.

Please study your history and particularly the state of computing in the early eighties, when Stallman founded the FSF. He looked at the future of computing and he saw a bunch of big companies with a proprietary Unix version each, and new players like Apple and Microsoft. Had the Internet been built on that foundation, not to mention robotics, AI and rapid prototyping, today would be a very different world.

It's easy for you to point your finger and talk about "the real world", now that GCC, Linux and the free BSDs exist. Now imagine a company like Google, except they have to pay licenses for the OS, compilers and interpreters, databases, video and audio conversion. Imagine yourself using computers and not having any control of what goes on, with corporations controlling everything from the BIOS up.

Richard Stallman changed the world. "Reactionary", indeed. Do tell, dear Viol8, what you ever accomplished out there in the "real world"?

I think it's pretty obvious that western democracies are less free and open than they were around the turn of the millennium.

If we are supposed to set some kind of example for the world, we're doing a lousy job.

The prime example perhaps being USA:s increased and very public spreading of torture.

I'm not sure about the GPs analysis that it's all in the name (or spirit) of making more money.

I have used:

mail
Emacs
pine
mutt
Netscape
Evolution
KMail
Thunderbird
Squirrelmail
IMP
Zimbra
Mail.app
Outlook
Outlook Express
Exchange's poor excuse for web mail ...and probably a few more MUAs to read my e-mail through the ages.

Gmail is the best interface for e-mail, for me, so far. Actually, the only one that comes close is probably mutt with procmail, but it's hard to compare since spam wasn't really a problem back then.

There are different kinds of empires. Not all of them do their conquering as blatantly as Genghis Khan or the Spanish conquistas. The British Empire was a trade empire during it's first half, exporting technology, trading and bringing home wealth. Chinese empires have seldom attempted to expand or conquer.

When the US entered Afghanistan, they bought war lords to help them combat the Taliban. The US doesn't tax trade but controls the rules of trade.
The US is an empire all right.

Different empires have different missions, but as imperial missions come, the American mission is pretty similar to the British and the Roman: To spread "civilization" in the name of a christian god. Look to the Spanish empire, the Chinese empires, Tsar Russia and the Soviet Union for other missions.

I really recommend reading Empires: The Logic of World Domination from Ancient Rome to the United States by Herfried Münkler, a great book which steers clear of the usual theories of imperialism and tries to go beyond, to explain the dynamics of empires, hegemonies and states.

This! Kudos to Ray Beckerman for your tireless work, and everybody:

Read Courtney Love's article! It's an amazing read!

Well, I guess we are living in a "Least Favored Nation"... (Sweden here!)