-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 Alfred M. Szmidt wrote: > If you have a business that supports non-free software then users will > go to that business to get that support. It would be better if the > business only supported a _way_to_move_ from non-free software to free > software for users, and clearly saying that it does not condone of > non-free software.
Hi Alfred I do believe you hit a nail on the head here. Your conception of allowing businesses to support a _way_to_move_ to Free Software from non-free software is very interesting. This way a business could offer to inherit a non-free customer and transition them to free software. It's a very nice concept for the provision of integration services. A couple of thoughts come to mind: (A) How long a transition would be permitted? A small customer might install GNU/Linux and be happy, but a large enterprise would require several years of dual-support as systems are phased out and training is provided. (B) Would partial transitions be a supported activity? A customer might wish to get OpenOffice.org and Mozilla tools without ditching their Windows boxes. Would a GBN member be able to support this? Would the GBN member - by supporting Free Software tools on non-free operating systems - be doing good? (C) How can the exact line in the sand be drawn between supporting a _way_to_move_ to Free Software from non-free software and actually supporting non-free software? I think long transitions would need to be supported to allow for enterprise adoption. Well, that's assuming we want GBN businesses to engage with the enterprise market. I think partial transitions are a good idea. If people are introduced to the strengths of Free Software in their deployment environment I believe they are more likely to fully adopt in the future. Of course, I acknowledge that this type of transition is open to abuse or misrepresentation. Drawing a line in the sand between transitions to Free Software and merely providing support for non-free software is difficult. However, I would suggest that if there is a road-map for adoption agreed it constitutes a fair method of indicating intended transition. Shane - -- Shane Martin Coughlan e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] m: +447773180107 (UK) +353862262570 (Ire) w: www.opendawn.com - --- OpenPGP: http://www.opendawn.com/shane/publickey.asc -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2.2 (GNU/Linux) iQCVAwUBRJ+jq9wG3M95JPpzAQiH8AP/Wf7JmpfUxiAbfGPPwgusc4W6hh2nUfk0 R9pF6XX6sOoYozLpegqcNwiS3a1Xr8YXe8CrNm71lcXzw2djbw0721v6xlBKgF2c M2EgNEDBLgCB8tG2JBllqnB3QfP5h7Qgs/7pn8oJfKmzM13wTPDGWx+hNP6BucXP j19YK43tUlc= =POL/ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list [email protected] https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
