-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Yavor Doganov wrote: > Tryggvi Björgvinsson wrote: >> IIRC, Stallman used proprietary UNIX in the beginning in order to be >> able to work on GNU and then switch as soon as he had a working >> operating system. In that my opinion is that one should be able to >> use proprietary software when free alternatives aren't available. > > Please don't use this as an excuse; it is nowhere near to the > situation we have now. RMS (and others) used Unix as a foundation in > order to develop GNU by writing components, one by one. It was the > only way. To put it in other words, those early freedom fighters used > prison's tools to provide an escape from the prison for all of us. > > Now that we have entirely free operating system we are lucky that > we're not forced to use unethical software. Of course, many features > are not available, and that will be the case for some years to come.
Don't get me wrong. I was not trying to make any excuses. I am grateful that everyone has the possibility of using a completely free operating system. But, IMO freedom should not be restricting. I don't mind people using non-free alternatives if there aren't any free ones. I choose free software whenever I can. That's why I like gNewSense, I don't have to look out for the big bad wolf (I would be a part of a wolf hunting swat team). However, restricting people from using Adobe's Flash because Gnash isn't ready is wrong (in my opinion). I was only trying to point out that before _all_ parts are free, I think people should be able to use non-free software (by using some other distro than gNewSense), until the free alternatives are ready. Sadly, I don't think many value their freedom more the newest cool proprietary gadget or piece of software. I would like to show them that freedom is better, but without saying: "Look at how much better it is! Btw, you'd have to get rid of your ipod, and flash, and graphics card, and wireless card, and your game-console, and etc." Here in Iceland, proprietary products have a stronghold on almost everything. The ministry of education has even made a deal with Microsoft. My university has only Windows in their computer labs and teachers hand out presentations and assignments in Microsoft's closed Office format. This I am trying to fight by being the bitching little student who sends e-mails to tell them that there is an alternative to those formats which is open. Many of them don't even understand what I'm talking about, but I won't give up :) We've come a long way and enabled those who value their freedom to use a completely free operating system. But I do believe we have another long way to go in educating the rest about why it is so valuable. I think it can be done by either allowing them to use proprietary products for the time being or (verbally) attacking the corporations and force them to free their software. Both actions are being taken, but I hope the latter will pay off. /Tryggvi -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.3 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFFr9OrTfUwC3N5Fj0RAnPwAKDKW5VEiFtelAnqjALFPQSdhYEsuACffaoJ kFl/6+5DJoJ8IkbEXpdaNUk= =yNBE -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ gNewSense-users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnewsense-users
