I am familiar with case nr. 3... Sometimes I get the expression people are
convinced all these freedoms only matter for developers and the thought, that
there might be ethical principles involved, is too foreign for them to adopt.
Personally, I think one shouldn't preach left and right about it. It gives
the wrong impression. Bring it up when it is relevant for some other topics,
let the other person figure it out by themselves (we all got Internet and can
search it, after all). If you mention free software and the importance of
open standards from time to time, the other person will start thinking about
it ineviitably. The idea that ethics and software have something to do with
each other is quite unusual and new, it has to sink in.
I knew a guy who helped me learning how to use GNU/Linux (there used to be
wonderful German ressource on the net, linuxpaten.org, a page dedicated to
bringing GNU/Linux pros and beginners together). He used to talk about free
software and the GNU project from time to time. Usually it ended with him
giving me links to articles on gnu.org. I just blocked all of that, not
willing to understand what it has to do with "Linux" and my personal goal of
not using Windows anymore. I kept thinking about it though, so at some point,
when I was just surfing around the net, bored, I searched youtube for "Linux
history". A video called "Richard Stallman, father of all things that are
Linux" popped up. I was like, who the hell is that poser? L. Torvalds made
Linux, right? And look where I ended up today :P It's important that people
try to learn about it themselves, one can't force the stuff onto them.
