On 08/10/2016 01:40 AM, lkcl . wrote: > ok so we got permission, eric from crowdsupply explained that actually > what they do is assign the campaign organisers the right to use the > videos that they produce, especially for promotion, which is great. > so yes please go to it! :)
Thanks! > now, andre, i have a special favour to ask, it's because many people > really do not actually truly understand what software libre really is > about. i wanted to reach out to you to explain some insights i have > learned from chris (thinkpenguin.com, my sponsor) and from watching dr > stallman be verbally attacked and abused during questions at hopeconf > 2016. > > people genuinely genuinely believe that to be committed to software > libre is some sort of zealous idealistic extremism - a form of mental > illness, even - which is not only downright rude but is totally wrong. > the people who believe this see a committment to ethical standards: > they don't like to be reminded that they made a conscious or > subconscious decision to COMPROMISE on ethical standards, and, rather > than admit that to themselves, they go into all-out ATTACK. blame the > other person instead of accepting responsibility. works a charm. > > in talking to chris i have come to learn that a committment to > software libre results very simply in hardware that JUST WORKS. i > told people i think it was about 200 to 300 times: "hassle-free > computing: stuff that just works. thinkpenguin do the research... so > that you don't have to". and *everybody* i said that to got it > immediately. > > some examples: they sell ttyACM modems. not to linux users... but to > windows users!! people who have windows xp tend to live in remote > areas, where broadband is not profitable. they have old conexant > soft-modems. they upgrade to windows 7... only to find that the > drivers aren't maintained for windows 7! why? because... it's not > profitable. now they're totally disconnected from the internet. so > they phone up chris and say, "thank god you have ttyACM hard-modems - > please sell me one!" > > they sell PCIe-to-USB3 cards that they've researched work > out-of-the-box and do not require firmware. > > they sell AR9271 802.11n USB WIFI modems that they spent 2 years > walking atheros through the process of releasing the ath9k_htc > firmware that goes into the libre firmware repositories. > > and guess what? the only support calls that they get are down to > flaky customer hardware (usually extremely poor quality laptops that > the customer ows where the USB controllers are not properly > functional) and to "whitelisting" in proprietary BIOSes (usually WIFI > cards so that Dell and IBM can sell you expensive whitelisted PCIe > products at a huge markup). > > it's the same with printers: they pre-vet the printers.... and the USB > Audio dongles... and the Hauppaug USB TV tuners... all these things > *just work* because they've gone to a lot of trouble to find them, > check them, track down the firmware and make sure it's libre. > > 12 years ago i bought *six* soft-modems in a row, taking every single > one back to the shop because none of them worked with linux. that was > 2 days travel-time wasted. > > *this* is what software libre is really about, on a really practical > level. not even anything really to do with conspiracy theories or > spying and so on, although we know now that that's not actually > conspiracy but that it *really does* happen. we also know that 900 > million qualcomm-based android devices are soon going to end up in > landfill. > > what we really do not hear enough about is that if you respect > software freedom and use libre hardware, the driver incompatibility > issues that everyone over the past 10-15 years has associated with > hardware and put up with despite really really hating it.... all those > issues disappear. > > i know you truly understand this, because you run libre software down > to the bedrock of your computing devices, but please can i urge you to > consider making it a really key point of your talk so that more people > can get the message that there really is a way to have less problems > with their computers. > > l. >
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