[Gllug] GLLUG ->Gnu Linux London Users Group

[jim at lateral.net]

>
>> You aren't helping your cause.  Melodrama and short emphatic sentences
>> and pseudo-profundity are fine, but not over whether to add four
>> characters to the group's name or not.
> ??? I never suggested adding 4 letters to the group's name.
>
>> If you want to fight The Battle
>> Of Free Software, do so by writing some, or doing something vaguely
>> effectual; not by talking holier-than-thou at those of us who don't
>> care.

If you don't care why bother responding.

> A few years ago I was consciously treading an apolitical line too.
> Eventually, I had something put in front of me which I could not
> ignore. I realised many things being done are not to the common good.
> You, fortunately, are reaping the rewards of efforts for the common
> good. I am making efforts. Please don't throw cold water on those
> efforts.
>
I am not throwing cold water on you Nick, I am delighted that more people
are making the effort to take into consideration the wider consequences of
their actions.  Some people however are into open source software rather
than The Free Software Movement, I believe that Mr Stallman himself made
the distinction between the two.  I personally support the idea and
execution of Free Software, but from what I understood of the lecture and
my own experiences the two are not mutually exclusive avenues.
>>
>> Many of us aren't using Linux because it makes us into wonderfully
>> socially responsible people; we're using Linux because it's _good_ and
>> it lets us do things.  We've heard RMS talk on the subject many times
>> and for many years, and his GNU/Linux idea doesn't mean much to us.
>
> Without the philosophy, GNU/Linux would not exist. Without Richard
> stallman, the philosophy probably wouldn't exist. Without copyleft,
> Linux will probably be proprietary and not be as practical as you would
> like. You are reaping th practical rewards of the GNU philosophy.
> Please support it.

Richard Stallman is a man I have admiration and respect for but the
philosophy he espouses has much deeper and wider roots than RMS The Free
Software Foundation, copyleft or even the technological and industrial
revolutions of the last 250/500 years[1].  The use of GPL in this country
(UK) at least, is the first expansion of the commons since the beginings of
the enclosures act.  Though this time the commons are knowledge not land
based.  The only thing I could honestly say we wouldn't have without RMS is
Emacs and as a Vi user I can not say I would miss it.

Peace Jim

'It is not my revolution if I can not dance.'
--Emma Goldman

[1] there is some academic dispute over exactly when the industrial
revolution started if at all.



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