On Monday 22 September 2008 01:00:18 Gora Mohanty wrote: > (b) Should Sarai, as an avowedly FOSS organisation, use > proprietary software in a public demo? My opinion is no, > but again I believe that this should be done through peer > pressure, rather than outright banning. The person in > question uses Linux/KDE on his desktop, which is a large > part of his computing, and dual-boots at home due to his > daughter's addiction to KDE games. He has been considering > switching his laptop too to Linux, so maybe here is an > opportunity.
At the risk of a flame war debating between GPL and BSD licences, this is exactly the difference between the two licences, IMO of course. * GPL restricts complete freedom, by putting in conditions, for the higher goal of software freedom for the society. * BSD (w/o advert. clause) strives for complete freedom. They share the same goals as GPL - software freedom, but give further freedom to users - the choice to use whatever licence they want for their derivatives. Both have their own approaches to a common goal( One should not fault any one for the other).So do we, in deciding how to take this day forward. My belief is that software freedom advocacy should not be a black and white "here, or not any where" approach. For most people, freedom is a long journey - from the initial steps into using a FOSS browser, then to a FOSS mail client ... hopefully eventually to a FOSS OS. Every step on the way of freedom should be congratulated and encouraged. Firefox has arguably done more to the popularity of FOSS than any other software in history. A whole lot of people, who would otherwise had never tried FOSS voluntarily, have come to believe that something free can be so good. The next step is to make them believe how the "free" part is more than just money. There is such a long way to go. Acting pedantic and orthodox about freedom is never going to help the cause. Besides seeing parts of the world they are familiar with during these presentations is only going to make new entrants more comfortable and more likely to try them out. Moving to a different OS is a life changing activity very few have the stomach to take. Actually, if they see everything in Linux, they would probably be more detached from the subject, as they would have the mental barrier - "to use this, I first have to change my OS". They will nod, but would be afraid to take the big step before it. Infiltrating the world of Windows and Mac with FOSS, getting them hooked on free software and eventually tempting them to try the OS itself, might just be a more effective way to get the masses in. (notice how the last line looks like something billg@ might have said about his OS several years back ;) ) - Sandip _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/
