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This isn't going to be a politics scribbling, but it is a computer stuff scribbling. The difference is slim sometimes, since computer people can get just as rabid (if not more so) than politicians. Don't believe me? Find an Amiga user (it might take a while), and suggest that the Amiga really wasn't anything too special.

Anyway, this is going to be an opinionated piece, so if that bothers you, and you'd rather see something bland, hit your Back button and go somewhere else. 'Cause I'm irritated this morning.

Yesterday, Apple released Mac OS X Server. Basically, it's an Operating System that's got BSD Unix guts and the MacOS GUI on top of it all. It's really kinda neat. In a somewhat unexpected move, Apple then made more-or-less public some of the lower-level stuff for Mac OS X Server. It's an unprecedented move for a major commercial software company to release their code in this way. It was really cool.

And then the fucking whining started.

People wanted Apple to release their whole OS as Open Source/Free Software. They couldn't believe that Apple retained the right to revoke someone's license to the code of a lawsuit came up regarding the code. They couldn't believe that Apple wanted people to be bound by a license at all. "Information wants to be free!" was the cry.

Bullshit. Okay, Unca Matt here to speak some truth. Sit down and listen.

Everyone set? Good. 'Cause here's the truth. Information does not want to be free. In fact, it doesn't want anything! It's just information. Data. It has no personality, so don't try to anthropomorphize it, 'cause it makes you sound fucking stupid.

The reason "Information wants to be free" is the slogan is that it sounds much cooler than: "People hate paying for something that they think they might get away with not paying for." Harsh truth, but a truth nonetheless. People are, in general, greedy, conniving, cheap and miserly. If we think we can get something for free, odds are we'll take it. And once some really slick guy figured out that if you stick a noble slogan like "Information wants to be free" out front where everyone can see it, people might hit that word free and just stop thinking. Of course. Information wants to be free.

Don't get me wrong -- I think Linux is one of the neatest things that the Internet has produced, and probably always will be. But it's free because Linus Torvalds decided to make it free. The information didn't decide shit.

Well, that's all for now. Still think information should be free? Send me your credit card number and PIN via the email link. Please.