[Sussex] modem connection

[Geoff Teale]

On Thu, 2003-10-30 at 07:49, Tony Austin wrote:
> Whoops!  I wasn't being that serious really.  <g>

Nor I.  I just like the sound of my own typing.

> I fully understand and respect the work that RS and the GNU team put into
> GNU/Linux and I feel quite sorry for poor old RS in his losing battle to
> remind people that it's "GNU/Linux" and not just "Linux".  But Hell,
> "GNU/Linux" is just such a mouthful!

Agreed GNU/Linux is not a great name.  Really what is important is that
people use this stuff.  Recognition for RMS is something that just won't
happen outside geek circles, all the GNU/Linux name argument has
achieved is making RMS look like a radical loony, which is a shame. 

> It was one of RS's articles, where he explains how software is far too
> important to be left in the hands of commercial enterprises and that our
> civil liberties could be under threat, that was the turning point for me
> and made me determined to learn about Linux, even if it wasn't easy.

I came across Linux in the early-mid 1990's at Uni, we used it there
alongside UNIX on DEC hardware, but in the end it was probably a push
away from the monopolistic of microsoft that drove me in that
direction.  I've used FreeBSD, BeOS, QNX RtP and pretty much anything
else I could get my hands on in my time, but ultimately only Linux
really had enough force behind it to be a viable alternative for day to
day use.  Then of course there was another factor best summed up by this
quote from Utah Phillips:

"There comes a time when the operation of the machine is so odious that
you cannot even tacitly participate.  You've got to lay down your body
on the cogs, the wheels and the whole mechanism.  You've got to indicate
to those who own it and those who run it that unless we are free the
machine will be prevented from operating at all."

... in short, if you don't like something don't just moan about it,
actively do something about it.  For me that means not only using a OS
other than Windows but also putting my weight behind a movement that
actively looks to undermine the mechanisms and assumptions that have
allowed a monopoly to occur in the first place.

-- 
GJT 
gteale at cmedltd.com 
-- 
The only thing that experience teaches us is that experience teaches us
nothing. -- Andre Maurois (Emile Herzog)