On Saturday 02 February 2008 13:21, Ian Lynch wrote: <snip> I agree with all you have said, especially the eeePC, which I got a couple of weeks ago, but don't get to see much of because my daughter has commandeered it! The sheer number of these sold suggests that if the product is appealing enough, closed software does not have an insurmountable mindshare.
> It will become easier and easier to only use FOSS if that > is the ethical route you choose but don't expect all proprietary > software to disappear any time soon. I don't think anybody here does - even in the longer term there may be niche markets where it will remain. But the point is whether, when advocating free software, we should give a leg up to legacy closed systems or not. They can reasonably be regarded as a necessary evil *for now*, but to go on to suggest to people that they will always be a major part of the landscape, and that there's nothing much free software can do about that except swallow it and play around on their margins, seems to me to be missing something in the advocacy department. We wouldn't be having this discussion now if our predecessors had said "there's no real point taking on the gorillas, lads - might as well pack up and go home". -- Pob hwyl / Best wishes Kevin Donnelly www.klebran.org.uk - Gwirydd gramadeg rhydd i'r Gymraeg www.eurfa.org.uk - Geiriadur rhydd i'r Gymraeg www.rhedadur.org.uk - Rhedeg berfau Cymraeg _______________________________________________ Fsfe-uk mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfe-uk
