Hello, A few days ago, I saw Daniel's article about the use of proprietary software and services by the FSFE:
https://danielpocock.com/pmpc-for-fsfe-itself This follows up on a long discussion last year, starting here... https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/discussion/2017-June/011591.html ...and ending here: https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/discussion/2017-October/011934.html Firstly, I like the idea of awards to organisations who actually use Free Software to achieve their objectives. These days, it is far too easy for people to use "off the shelf" proprietary services and wave away objections about privacy, surveillance and control. Those who persist with Free Software and who improve it should be acknowledged and rewarded. Now, I understand that even in the Free Software universe, people do not always want to be bothered to deploy software, especially if the act of doing so is not a familiar one. It seems that more and more expertise is required to deploy software in a secure, defensible fashion. But unless there are people who do so and who are willing to share their expertise, then it will become a less widely practised act with fewer able to benefit from the control and independence that Free Software offers. I was surprised that Daniel's motion to document the FSFE's proprietary dependencies, and to describe ways of eliminating them, was so strongly opposed. Is it because admitting such dependencies is embarrassing? Or are there other reasons why no-one else was willing to support it? Many of us commit to using Free Software exclusively where the right to exercise this control has been given to us. Actively using and developing such software is just as important as promoting it, arguably more so. If I were to use proprietary software to advocate Free Software usage, it might be said that I would merely be indulging in a hobby, that I do not lead by example, and so on. Is it not right for the FSFE to be held to the same standards? Paul _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list [email protected] https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion This mailing list is covered by the FSFE's Code of Conduct. All participants are kindly asked to be excellent to each other: https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct
