My usual approach to this kind of argument is to go meta… specifically, to ask what it is we are trying to achieve.
If it really is “freedom” expressed in generic abstract units, then sure, they have the same number of units of freedom, and that’s all we care about… but this seems to describe precisely nobody in the real world. If it’s something else for which freedom is a usually-convenient proxy, this is a good time to unpack the proxy and think about what we actually want.
In the specific case, I would likely ask “why is it valuable to a Linux user to be able to modify Linux source code? Do OSX users get the same value out of being able to modify Linux source code? Do we care about freedom even when it’s valueless? Do we care about value?”
My usual approach to this kind of argument is to go meta… specifically, to ask what it is we are trying to achieve.
If it really is “freedom” expressed in generic abstract units, then sure, they have the same number of units of freedom, and that’s all we care about… but this seems to describe precisely nobody in the real world. If it’s something else for which freedom is a usually-convenient proxy, this is a good time to unpack the proxy and think about what we actually want.
In the specific case, I would likely ask “why is it valuable to a Linux user to be able to modify Linux source code? Do OSX users get the same value out of being able to modify Linux source code? Do we care about freedom even when it’s valueless? Do we care about value?”