[libreoffice-website] new main homepage and Proprietary software, recognizable iMac

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:31:14 -0800

Hi, I'm a Free software activist and a LibreOffice contributor in term of QA, bug report, "spread the world" since day 1. I don't speak "non technical" English good enough, so forgive me if I could sound "harsh" sometime but is due to the limitation of my vocabulary and grammar. Like you, I'm aware that our *goal* is not having people to use LiBo as a cheap alternative of M$Office (and so use our time, effort and dedication just to save money...), but people that care about their freedom and so use LiBo as a consequence. Is not an opposition of two "products", but two way of thinking the future, the freedom, the society. You also know for sure that one of the most "enslavery" and against Freedom firm is Apple, that produces devices strictly chained with their proprietary software. When you see an apple iDevice, you immediately recognize an ecosystem, a brand, and that "philosophy". I'm writing here because I was really shocked when I saw the new home page showing an iMac (http://www.apple.com/imac/ for a quick comparison). It's not like showing a Dell or an HP monitor that is "just hardware", showing an iMac is not showing a "neutral" hardware, but enforcing and share an Apple proprietary vision of the world. So I'm asking the designer of the site do replace the recognizable iMac images with generic ones, because I consider promoting Apple products a big damage to our cause and to the community. When I explain people about the difference among LibreOffice and M$Office, I value a lot the freedom part, because is the only unbeatable point Libo has against it (price is not a big issue, they have M$Office pre-installed/cracked/took on big discount for schools/students, etc). I point out how M$ and Apple need to chain you to their products and file formats, while LiBo is all the contrary. But now if I point them to LiBo home all my arguments miserably fall "see, also LiBo people show Apple products, so they also think is great and all that crap you told me about freedom is pointless". If today M$ will produce a very recognizable model of PC, would we use it on our home as well? One thing is have a program that runs ALSO on proprietary OS, one is put "THE proprietary brand" on our home. LibreOffice is one of the most important Free software project, so has the moral duty to do the right things. My favorite example is a site that promotes genuine biological food, and their web designer found that putting a succulent Cheesburgher icon on the home is a good idea. I do really thing that all volunteers that work hard to make the message of "genuine food" spread are hurt. I think that using a neutral image of a simple device like a monitor is a little effort for our beloved web designers, but will remove the hurt to our values and believes. 
Thanks a lot for the attention
Marco Menardi

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