Tryggvi Björgvinsson wrote: > > Don't get me wrong. I was not trying to make any excuses.
I think we are miscommunicating and it is you who are getting me wrong. I grasped your point completely, IMHO. > I am grateful that everyone has the possibility of using a > completely free operating system. But, IMO freedom should not be > restricting. Recently Ciaran O'Riordan posted a link to transcript he made of RMS's speech in Zagreb last year. To cite by memory: "To be able to choose between proprietary programs is to be able to choose your master. Freedom means having no master." I can't think of a way how software freedom can be restricting. It restricts the others from restricting the rest of the society (well, if it is copylefted); that's deliberate and a good thing. > I don't mind people using non-free alternatives if there aren't any > free ones. Well, I do mind just as I do mind selling your daughter in slavery or intentionally crippling your son so that he gan beg more successfully on the streets (this still happens in some parts of the world). But using free or non-free software is a choice that everyone makes for himself. > However, restricting people from using Adobe's Flash because Gnash isn't > ready is wrong (in my opinion). I really don't understand what you mean by that. I am not controlling your computer, nor I have even the slightest desire to do so, so how am I restricting you? You can always install it if you want. Of course, if a person uses it, I know what his values are. This is sad. I don't use Flash even at work, where 99% of the pages I have to visit are entirely Flash based. My boss haven't fired me yet, and I'm still using computers all of the time. > 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. If you apply this way of thinking, we wouldn't have all the free software that we have now. If people consider using non-free software as an acceptable thing (when there is no free alternative), such an alternative is unlikely to be ever developed. The "free alternative" thing goes even further, as Linus Torvalds for example claimed that there was no free alternative to BitKeeper and encouraged people to use it for Linux development. > 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." Educating people about software freedom is the most important thing. You have to practice what you preach, otherwise there is no effect and in fact you might become ridiculous in the eyes of the others. It's freedom or death, there is no "middle" situation. > Here in Iceland, proprietary products have a stronghold on almost > everything. Here in Bulgaria, proprietary software have a stronghold on absolutely everything. > The ministry of education has even made a deal with Microsoft. Our government has made a mutlimillion deal with Microsoft, which was prolonged for another 3 years recently. All our ministries, government agencies, etc. use proprietary software and force the citizen to use it if she wants to communicate by electronic means. This is totally unacceptable. > 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. As I said, if you accept non-free software as a legitimate and morally justified thing, even temporarily, the battle is lost in advance. _______________________________________________ gNewSense-users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnewsense-users
