Hi Anurag,
I totally agree with you that free software can be made easy to use. I am infact not in favor of writing any software that is a nightmare to work with. That is the reason i initiated this debate by forwarding a mail from an end user to the list.
Does RMS ever say that Free software should not be designed to be easy to use? i doubt.
Infact we all know that Freedom matters, Free Free Free ... Lets get over with the basics and get our heads down to write good FREE software. We have the Freedom and we promote it too. .. And the world has heard us loud and clear.
They say the DEVIL LIES IN THE DETAILS ... So its useless to talk about freedom and free software without backing it up with good software. We have come this far with good work. Lets just keep on doing the good work and not pay a deaf ear to end user's perspective.
hail the spirit of FSF regards, tarun
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WORRY NOT ON WHAT HAS BEEN DONE, WORRY ON WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE. FOR EVOLUTION IS NOT WHAT EXISTS, IT IS WHAT WE DO WITH WHAT EXISTS. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: fsf-discuss-request@mm.gnu.org.in Reply-To: fsf-discuss@mm.gnu.org.in To: fsf-discuss@mm.gnu.org.in Subject: Fsf-discuss Digest, Vol 7, Issue 1 Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 12:00:43 +0530
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Today's Topics:
- free good and easy to use software (Mathur,Anurag)
Message: 1 Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 11:57:11 +0530 From: "Mathur,Anurag" amathur@iPolicyNet.COM Subject: [Fsf-discuss] free good and easy to use software To: fsf-discuss@mm.gnu.org.in Message-ID: D269C7CBDF116A48982D4DC51F111BE34C22DE@nsezhpmail01.india.ipolicynet.com
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Hi Tarun,
Please refer to ur opening mail. I think free software can be made good and easy to use without much effort.
Thanks
Anurag Mathur iPolicy Networks
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On Wed, 2004-05-05 at 16:23, Tarun Gaur wrote:
Hi Anurag,
I totally agree with you that free software can be made easy to use. I am infact not in favor of writing any software that is a nightmare to work with. That is the reason i initiated this debate by forwarding a mail from an end user to the list.
Does RMS ever say that Free software should not be designed to be easy to use? i doubt.
Infact we all know that Freedom matters, Free Free Free ... Lets get over with the basics and get our heads down to write good FREE software. We have the Freedom and we promote it too. .. And the world has heard us loud and clear.
1. Freedom matters 2. Freedom Software matters 3. Good Freedom Software matters
So, let us make good freedom software.
While the above argument looks obvious, in the proposition 3. `Good' is difficult to define. Otherwise there is no problem.
Would you like to attempt to define or provide parameters for a good software, let us begin a new thread.
PS: The subject "Freedom matters - So does good software !!" may mislead. Good Software like Adobe Acrobat Reader doesn't matter for me, if its doesnt provide freedom. So what is good without freedom?
Nagarjuna
Nagarjuna G. posts:
While the above argument looks obvious, in the proposition 3. `Good' is difficult to define. Otherwise there is no problem.
There are many problems to be solved!!
What is `Good' for Tarun may not be good for me. Freedom is of paramount importance and this is what gives beauty to free software.
Good, functional and `technically best' is not all that important. We should start a campaign to highlight the dangers that is bound to strike a community which is not bothered about freedom.
Shall we put up a page on the DRM issue now? Is it not the right moment to talk about PlayFair on the FSF India site?
On Thu, May 06, 2004 at 04:45:02AM +0530, Raghavendra Bhat wrote:
Good, functional and `technically best' is not all that important.
Its better to say Freedom is more important than "functionality and `technical excellence". But this is valid only in personal computing, or academic usage (where we have an upper hand in decision making).
In business world only functional and `technically best products counts. They give less importance to freedom when compared to other factors. I know this should change, or may change some time later, but right now the situation is like this.
I was allowed to install one Debian box at work, only after I was able to prove that things works as per the company rules. My chants about Software Freedom was always heard with a doubtful face by the management[1].
From my experience what I feel is that, business world never care for
Freedom in computing. Most of those companies who seem to support Free Software (no they call it OSS), have some hidden agenda. Take the eg. of a famous RDBMS company. They support Linux kernel, because they find their product works better with this kernel than with any other non-free systems. Not because Linux kernel is Free as in Free Speech.
[1] The company where I work, create non-free software only.
Regards
On Wednesday 05 May 2004 5:45 pm, Nagarjuna G. wrote:
While the above argument looks obvious, in the proposition 3. `Good' is difficult to define. Otherwise there is no problem.
Would you like to attempt to define or provide parameters for a good software, let us begin a new thread.
Nagarjuna,
I have to say that I need to learn to write like you. I've been wanting to say the same thing in my previous responses to Tarun, but obviously failed badly.
Tarun,
I too am very keen on the details on what's not good about the existing 'free' software.
I recollect having problems trying to get my wife to using free software about 3 years back when I had a Pentium 166 Mhz with 32 MB RAM because I made her switch to using 'mutt' and 'lynx' instead of 'Outlook Express' and 'Internet Explorer' ... ;-)
With that kind of horse power, X Windows did not run very well.
But for past one year I have a Celeron with 128 MB RAM and my wife can't tell the difference between Windoze and GNU/Linux (Knoppix/Debian).. The KDE-XP Theme makes the job even that much easier to help users make the switch.
http://themes.kde.org/content/show.php?content=1499
I really want to know what the issues are with free software...
Regards
Rishi
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Dileep M. Kumar -
Nagarjuna G. -
Raghavendra Bhat -
Rishi -
Tarun Gaur