Nice story but . . . removing a constraint is not the same as imposing
them.
golinux
On 2017-06-21 11:06, Bruce Perens wrote:
About the time I started working on Free Software, I also founded
_No-Code International_ with the goal of eliminating Morse Code exams
as a requirement for the ham radio license, worldwide. This required a
change in international law, the International Telecommunications
Treaty of the ITU, a UN organization, and a corresponding change in
the laws of many nations after that.
The president of TAPR (a digital ham communications organization) said
in a keynote that we were looking at the end of ham radio within 20
years if we could not do something about the declining licensing of
young people. He said that many of us would preside over the demise of
ham radio in our lifetimes, and we sure didn't like that. I was out to
reverse the trend.
People pleaded with me not to "dumb down" Amateur Radio. At ham radio
gatherings, I got cursed out and yelled at. ARRL dispatched an
ex-president of their organization to IARU (International Amateur
Radio Union) meetings with one mission: preserve the Morse Code
requirement.
Our side won. Today there are more hams in the US than ever before in
history, and we are no longer expecting the demise of Ham Radio.
Nobody walks up to me and says that things would have been better had
I not interfered. I do get a lot of handshakes and thank-yous from new
hams. My regional ARRL director asks me to come to the podium to be
introduced at our annual meetings each year. I continue to be invited
to keynote ham conferences.
I do seem to hear a lot of the same sentiment as the pro-code guys in
this discussion. And I know where that goes. We didn't dumb anything
down, we just got people to participate. And everything was better for
it.
Thanks
Bruce
On Wed, Jun 21, 2017 at 8:51 AM, <[email protected]> wrote:
On 2017-06-21 02:02, Dr. Nikolaus Klepp wrote:
Am Mittwoch, 21. Juni 2017 schrieb Bruce Perens:
I agree, that 90% of the people are hapy with limited choice. But
as you
already said, that field is served by apple and M$. No > need for
us to
follow down that road. Salvation is not on to be found on the
highway :-)
What you are saying is that you'd willingly leave the world to
Apple and
Microsoft rather than have more people run Free Software, if it
means you
have to deal with those messy other people. This isn't healthy for
Free
Software. Maybe not even healthy for you.
May you fight for the souls of the unbelievers, you have my
blessing.
But this is not my war.
Nik
Mine either. You can't fix 'stupid' with free software. Darwin
always wins. What does courting 'stupid' with free software
accomplish? I don't think the answer is as idealistic as some might
think. If Mac and Windows can control 'stupid', so can free software.
And the egos of those seeking to lure those users? Well that's
classic psych 101. What to say, I'm old and cynical . . .
golinux
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