First of all, great job Rony :-) Its not easy trying to say so much in so few, you certainly have done it. Kudo's to you.
However, there are a couple of things i did some checking on that we could deliberate upon:
0)In the paragraph ``Why Free and Open Source Software" the word Freedom and the ethical reasons for why they should be used are very much absent. Not to mention the dangers of using proprietary software besides viruses, security problems, and data loss problems.
It is later mentioned that ``Linux is not just software, it is a movement that was started to empower the people, to empower YOU with full freedom to create, distribute and use software without getting locked out until you paid for an 'upgrade' of your commercial software.". The Linux kernel was NEVER started as a movement, it was started as a student project. The only movement which started this is the Free Software movement, from which the Open Source movement offshooted. It was only later that Linus joined up with the Open Source movement. Linus has also admitted that he would never have bothered to make the Linux kernel mainstream if GNU had finished their kernel.This is very much a historical fact.
i have have to really thank you Rony for this, as now it makes perfect sense why we just cannot refer to the operating system as Linux even for simplicity.
1)The word Freedom is mentioned in the ``Is Linux widely used?" paragraph right at the end, that too with an entire paragraph of tech praises preceding it. If we are mentioning technical excellence, great usability, and fantastic features everywhere - its only fair to mention the values and ethics of Freedom, the spirit of Revolution and the undying struggle against a tyranical order. Such language has caused change and shaped history in the past through printed books, let your wiki page stir the same passion for those online.
2)The link you quote http://www.linux.org/ mentions ``Linuxhttp://www.linux.org/#is a free Unix-type operating system originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers around the world." which seems to contradict(in the newbie readers perspective) what is written on the Wiki. Moreover the only mention about GNU is with a link on the GPL: http://www.linux.org/info/gnu.html
in that page to there are two links ``Foundations Software" and ``free software" both of which point to web ads via some bizweb2000.com site. Why are we putting such pages as links on our Wiki? It gives a very bad impression that we are encouraging adware.
3)The term ``Linux" is trademarked to Linus Torvalds and it should be mentioned. If you are respecting it for Microsoft you can certainly respect it for Linus.
comments?
Regards,
- vihan
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Vihan Pandey wrote:
First of all, great job Rony :-) Its not easy trying to say so much in so few, you certainly have done it. Kudo's to you.
+1
3)The term ``Linux" is trademarked to Linus Torvalds and it should be mentioned. If you are respecting it for Microsoft you can certainly respect it for Linus.
comments?
Would it be possible for it to include stuff from whylinuxisbetter.net ? Manu did put in significant effort there
:Sankarshan
- --
You see things; and you say 'Why?'; But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?' - George Bernard Shaw
Vihan Pandey wrote:
However, there are a couple of things i did some checking on that we could deliberate upon:
You can edit the document to your liking. :) Even when I tell about linux to my clients, thought not many go for it, I let them know about freedom and I give an example of tally where even those who have a legal 5.4 cannot read data created by 7.2 till they cough up the 'upgradation' money. Another thing I tell them is that this is a community software and on the net, good people have set up repo servers that give us a choice of more than 20,000 packages so why not encourage 'them' than any commercial organization.
Regards,
Rony. Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
You can edit the document to your liking. :)
For you to publicly make that statement, is very gracious :-)
Bravo !
Even when I tell about
linux to my clients, thought not many go for it, I let them know about freedom and I give an example of tally where even those who have a legal 5.4 cannot read data created by 7.2 till they cough up the 'upgradation' money. Another thing I tell them is that this is a community software and on the net, good people have set up repo servers that give us a choice of more than 20,000 packages so why not encourage 'them' than any commercial organization.
Keep up the good work :-)
again, well done !
Regards,
- vihan
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Rony -
Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay -
Vihan Pandey