When we started this blog my fellow editors and I agreed two rules:

1) No personal blogging; and
2) No Microsoft bashing.

This blog is about open source software and issues. Nothing more, nothing less. But you’re going to have to excuse me while I break the first rule and tell you a little about myself. I’ll no-doubt break rule #2 at some point in the future too. In fact I’m looking forward to it.

But back to personal disclosures. You see, dear reader, I am vegan. This doesn’t mean I’m from the Planet Veeg. It means I don’t eat anything at all that comes from animals. No meat, fish, milk, cream… nothing.

Being vegan is hard work because animal products get everywhere. Soy Sauce used in Chinese food often contains lactic acid, derived from milk. Beer is brewed using isinglass, which is taken from fish stomachs (yes, really, although I’m talking about British beer). Even condoms are made using proteins taken from milk.

This means a date with a vegan can be very boring, but it also means that I have to decide where to draw the line with my vegan beliefs. Should I be a vegan purist and not eat any animal product at all? Or should I lighten up a bit and try my best to avoid eating animal products but admit that there are times when I can’t?

Believe it or not, all of this has parallels with the world of open source.

How much is too much?

I run Linux on all the computers around my house and each has some component of proprietary software installed. My desktop computer runs VMWare Player and relies upon the Nvidia proprietary graphics drivers for my dual-monitor setup. I use Flash Player on a daily basis and I use the win32 codec pack to playback WMV and QuickTime videos.

Everything else is open source but I’m often left wondering: How much proprietary software is too much? How much proprietary software do I have to consume before I stop being a true open source user?

If you subscribe to the Stallman Church of Religious Intolerance then any quantity of proprietary software is too much. Richard Stallman is a great man who’s responsible for creating the world I inhabit on a daily basis. But I have to admit his views are perhaps too extreme.

But at the other end of the spectrum are those who don’t care too much about open source values, yet who still use open source software. These people use open source because it’s simply best for their situation. They use Linux on the desktop because Microsoft Windows has proved itself too insecure, or they use PHP/Python/Perl for their web site scripting because it simply provides what they need.

I’m not in that camp either because I care about open source beliefs. That’s part of the deal for me.

Between extremes

So I live between the two extremes. I’m not alone because there are millions like me. All of us care about the cause of open source to some degree but we use some proprietary software for pragmatic reasons.

If you’re hoping I’m going to wind-up this blog posting with some snippet of curative wisdom then you’re in for a disappointment. There is no answer here. You can’t have the best of both worlds and still come out smelling of roses. All I can do is point toward a way of thinking about the situation that works for me.

I believe in the firewall system I described in my posting a few days ago (see Opera Makes Ubuntu Sings a Sad Song). Proprietary software can be allowed through the firewall but as users we need to be aware of (a) where it’s come from (that it’s proprietary); and (b) why it’s here, which is to say that it’s simply a placeholder for an open source alternative that doesn’t yet exist.

In other words, it’s about honesty and accepting each piece of software on its own terms. Provided we do this there’s no reason why proprietary and open source software can’t live in harmony on the same system.