On Wednesday 28 Apr 2004 11:35 pm, Tarun Gaur wrote:

Hi Friend ...

Hi Tarun,

You keep saying don't take it personally... but when you greet me by saying "Hi Friend" ... I'm begining to wonder if you are.... Please feel free to say "Hi Rishi" if you like, the next time, if you choose to respond.

FREEDOM DOES NOT MEAN BAD SOFTWARE !!

Could you hi-light the disappointment of Mr. Reddy? What's so bad that it needs to be written in UPPER CASE? I'm really curious now. The Mandrake installation program may not look as flashy as the Windows XP installation, but I wouldn't go so far to say it's bad software....

Also I've learned to accept that all software is bad ... free or non-free... When I mean bad, I mean with bugs... Some software have minor bugs and others have major ones... I won't want to go into a debate if Windows has major ones and the GNU/Linux OS have minor bugs.... and that's not because I like using free software but because I'm not qualified to make a judgement of this nature.

AND I AM NOT DECRYING LINUX BROTHER. I know and value freedom as much as you do. But i also believe that each user shifting base from Windows to Linux matters to me. To me FREEDOM means freedom of free software to masses and i am sure Free Software is reaching there; sooner or later.

LETS AGREE TO DISAGREE.

I don't want to agree to disagree. I want to understand your point.

Your focus appears to be getting people to switch from Windows to the GNU/Linux OS instead of getting them to understand the philosophy of freedom in free software which I feel is the one to be highlighted.

That's a deeper concept to propogate / spread / communicate to the rest of the world. The following experience / history will explain why I think it should be done.

HISTORY

Just to give you some background... I started to use free software in 1996 when we installed what we called back then a Linux server. ;-)

However, it's only in 2001 when I attended a seminar held at TIFR by the man himself - RMS, that I was taken aback on the entire philosophy.. In fact before that I thought it was just free software as in price. I always wondered how and why people spend so much time writing software without getting paid. That all started to clear up when I heard RMS.

It's after that day I've been thinking about it and realized I need to talk to people about 'freedom' and not 'price' ....

It takes a lot of time since it's a concept that's we're not used to hearing every day... Specially for commercial organizations.

I'm proud to say that I have been able to convert my company to license the software they create with the GNU GPL. However, it was an 18 month effort not overnight one. I got my team and boss to attend a speech of RMS and that's when things started to turn around.

The concept that worked in my favor was focusing on the funda of 'freedom' and not feature rich / better / flashy looking software.

There are things in Windows that I like too, but I refuse to use it only because I value freedom.

It's hard to switch to using free software because of the hurdles that need to be crossed. I consider 'rich user experience' as one of the hurdles, however, no one needs to convince me about free software being "Better" as in "Rich user experience" since that's secondary and not primary.

The only reason I continue to use free software is because I value freedom in free software. I'm happy to deal with a little less "rich user experience" if the trade off is freedom.

And that's the concept I want you and others like Mr. Reddy should keep remembering.

ATTENDING AN RMS SPEECH WILL HELP

Have you or Mr. Reddy attended any of RMS's speeches? I'll have to say they are the most powerful ones. Once you (you or Mr. Reddy) understand and value freedom then the rich user experience won't be a constraint.

So once again, all I'm suggesting is that you do some soul searching and ask the fundamental question to yourself and Mr. Reddy...

What comes first? Freedom or Rich user experience .... I've pasted the contents of freedom at the bottom of the mail from the following link http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

Please be assured that none of us have any disrespect for people that value Rich user experience first and then freedom. Each person is free to choose what works for them, but lets just be honest on what we value and what we don't...

Just to remind you friend, I have been associated with FSF for a long time, contributed in number of projects and am running a project at Savanah with 16 members in it. Alsp i have contributed a lot of code in APACHE. So who can understand the movement better ...

It's fantastic that you've done all of this and I would like to thank and congratulate you on the same. Please continue to help and support these projects.

However, I still do suspect that there may be a fundamental conept of freedom that's not understood.

Sorry if my mail is too long but I just could not sit back and agree to disagree. I just needed to help communicate what I've understood about freedom.

BTW... I hope I've not deviated from the concept of freedom here. If I have not only would I like to be told about it, but would gladly accept the feedback as my goal is to understand and spread the correct values and concepts of freedom...

Regards

Rishi

FREEDOM

Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:

- The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).

- The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).

- The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.