[Gllug] Talk by Richard Stallman in London, 12 Feb

[Richard Cottrill]

Well if you pay for software as a service (particularly if it's remote) then
the software may be open, or closed, but in no case is it free. Not only
that, but you could lose the benefits of freedom even if the software were
free/libre because the version that the service provider may deliberately
prevent you moving to different service providers. Granted, anyone silly
enough to be stuck in such a situation probably deserves the reaming that
they will no doubt get (how does this hold for Nutscrape email users?), but
the software is free but it's users are quite seriously shackled. Consider
the ailing www.mySAP.com or the distinctly healthy www.salesforce.com

The last time I came across an RMS
speech/lecture/diatribe-about-whatever-crossed-his-slighty-confused-mind he
was talking about free software in general, and freeing users was where he
eventually settled. Actually he got himself sufficiently worked up to
endorse piracy of software in no uncertain terms. Considering the audience I
suspect he was personally responsible for setting back the cause of free
software in the Australian government to some considerable degree. Canberra
is utterly a Microsoft town - departmental managers simply refuse to believe
that free software can be useful - 'you get what you pay for'. In spite of
this Canberra has a very active free-software community and a strangely
close connection to the fine details of Linux (it's no coincidence that the
penguin enclosure at the otherwise crap Canberra aquarium has a plaque from
the Canberra LUG). The Samba and autoconf projects are both closely linked
to Canberra developers (as well as other, less well known projects, a kernel
hacker or two, etc). I seem to have digressed somewhat.

Not that I'm a little home-sick on this rather wet and cold Australia day...
For want of a better plan I think I'll head to one of the Walkabout pubs for
a few drinks.

Richard

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gllug-admin at linux.co.uk [mailto:gllug-admin at linux.co.uk]On Behalf
> Of Darran D. Rimron-Molloy
> Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2002 3:48 PM
> To: gllug at linux.co.uk
> Subject: RE: [Gllug] Talk by Richard Stallman in London, 12 Feb
>
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: gllug-admin at linux.co.uk
> > [mailto:gllug-admin at linux.co.uk]On Behalf
> > Of Richard Cottrill
> > Sent: 26 January 2002 15:09
> > To: gllug at linux.co.uk
> > Subject: RE: [Gllug] Talk by Richard Stallman in London, 12 Feb
> >
> >
> > Yep,
> >
> > I'll head along to listen to him again. If there's a Q&A bit
> > I'm curious to
> > hear his take on the idea of web services/ASPs.
>
> In what sense? *curious*
>
> 	-Darran
>
>
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> Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at linux.co.uk
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