On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 16:30:28 +1300 Rik Tindall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
(theres a whole lot of snipping gone on below) > If we cannot rely on a lawyer to promote the difference between legality > and illegality, then g*d help us! ;-) Rik, I am quite happy to promote the moral and legal legitimacy of linux and other open source software. I am just not sure that it is the trigger that will turn many heads. I must say that there was a time when I used windows and was happy enough to find ways to not pay for software on my home machine if i sould find a way around it. I even had computer professionals giving me pirate cd's and directinng me to password sites. I now enjoy the fact that I can now use sophisticated but free software with a clear conscience. But it wasn't what turmed my head to linux in the first place. Yes the morality and philosphy and price all have a place in the marketing of FLOSS, and to some parts of the market they are powerful attractions. But not necessarily to Joe Public. > > If we are only prepared to run one demo day in alternate years or fewer, > then - apart from wasting our time - we do need something truly > spectacular. Like super-slick multi-user gaming graphics run from a > mini-cluster onto a pub-sized screen, perhaps. Actually, how well do games go on your projector? > We might have to go for > non-licensed premises on such an occasion, however. A problem has often been trying to share resources between demos and installations. A person demoing their linux machine is a person lost to the installers team, and vice versa. Thats why I think something with more emphasis on the demo/expo stuff and having the instals in a back corner (or a subsequent date) would be an idea. > > To me, mass production seems to offer the best potential for maximising > the number of eyes appreciating the best that *nix has to offer. That & > we've seen Installfests work, to a considerable extent, which we can > usefully expand upon. I realise that voluntary hobbyism may well be > incompatible with sufficient organisation, so private enterprise stands > as plan B. > > I completely agree that the main advocacy issue is "people want a reason > to go through the (greater or lesser) degree of pain involved in > switching". This debate is about identifying the _central_ reason. It could as much be about offering a raft of reasons, starting with "WOW" followed by security and availability of good apps and following up with the cost, ease and ethics. > > We geeks gain from having legal, quality free software to use. With our > assistance, so can everybody else. 'Pain' I would expand as 'sacrifice': > of time; short- & medium-term earning potential; driver-work delay or > absence (some device loss); 'Win-Kewl'(?); stress from ongoing > frustration; self-exclusion from the mainstream; etc. Transition will > require a Very Good Reason(tm), for most. Cost-free is but a reflection > of our shared values inside there, rather than the value itself. This is > what the materially-minded need to acknowledge. > > > True. 'It just works' outweighs environmental sense, thus far. not just in the computing world i'm afraid! counted the fendalton tractors that have never seen an unsealed road lately? > Advocacy > involves shifting base values, upon which choices get made. Society as a > whole stands to gain from FOSS, after every household. So the focus is > _family_ computer use, rather than just geeks's and/or business. > > > Probably the opposite of 'kewl' is what has most to offer. Who needs to > be a freaked sheep wrapt around a lamp-post? So what if *nix gives you > trouble getting more and more (pix, wav, etc) data? - This is a > solution, rather than the (hard to perceive) problem. Less is More. > If what you are trying to say is that we don't need whizz bang to have a good computing experience, I agree. I don't want the gross waste of resources that is XP, Vista or, for that matter, the grosser excesses of the fancier kde/gnome desktops. Getting what you want/need and no more is a "good thing". Getting no less than what you want/need is important too. > > > Motivation for legitimacy grows stronger all the time - it has been > easiest for most just to buy XP (hardware). But Vista? This is where > Free/Open should come into its own - comp.resource salvage, and free + > legal + quick patches - a unique combination. yes, Vista is a powerful ally to open source.
