[Sussex] Distros

[Geoffrey J. Teale]

"Chris Jones" <cmsj at tenshu.net> writes:

> Hi

Hello

> Or running well integrated banking software, 

Eh?  Most of the big banks run their operations on Linux post 9/11 -
are you talking about Microsoft Money type software?  

> or doing the things GIMP
> can't manage yet, 

This is an increasingly small set of things.  I know of several print
shops and design organisations who believe that the GIMP is actually a
far better environment than photoshop now.  The real problem is that
designers know there way around photoshop and don't want to learn a
new tool.

>or editing a video, 

Hmmm.. odd because not only are there several excellent tools to do
this, but major Holywood movies have been edited with free software.

>or... the list goes on and on.

Yes there are admittedly a number of specialist applications out there
that are not yet covered by Free Software, but the core platform is
really very well served now.

> It's just worth an absolute fortune ;)

Yup.  How is that a priority?  Yes we'd love games to be free
software, but it's a losing battle right now so we don't fight it
particularly hard with our limited resources.

> These international arguments are certainly very good and more morally
> compelling than anything FSF related.
> I am tempted though to argue that anything which prevents developing
> nations being sucked into the same insane way of living we have in the
> west could be considered a good thing ;)

:-)  Unfortunately they are in our world and suffering because of it.

> Of course if FSF had managed to nail the Hurd developers down into
> actually releasing some software at some point then they could have had
> their own OS out there for ages now ;)

The HURD is no more or less "Free" than the Linux kernel.  If the FSF
was interested in maintaining a distro it could have been doing so
since the first GPL'd linux kernel in the early 1990s.

> I think RMS is a crackpot, but a well-intentioned, useful crackpot :)

Fair enough :-)

> Perhaps this is the key difference here, I am not passionate about Free
> Software specifically, it's just better generally so I like it when I can
> use it ;)

That may be, but you use under the terms defined by the licensor, at
that licensor generally would like you to remember exactly what using
that software means.

-- 
Geoff Teale
CMed Technology            -   gteale at cmedresearch.com
Free Software Foundation   -   tealeg at member.fsf.org

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