[Sussex] Distros

[Paul Tansom]

On Tue, 2005-04-05 at 15:14 +0100, Geoffrey J. Teale wrote:
> Paul Tansom <paul at aptanet.com> writes:
<snip>
> > So the FSF is more interested in the corporate/business user than the
> > home user? Games are probably one of the biggest stumbling blocks to
> > many home users migrating across, these and things like genealogy
> > software (not software to put data into, but the databases of
> > information that are Windows based or use Excel spreadsheets with
> > macros) and gardening software. You can argue that these have not real
> > social value depending on your definition, but without addressing them
> > in some form (either free versions or encouraging commercial versions on
> > a free OS) you will be leaving a large section of potential users behind
> > - perhaps they are the last likely to move across, but do dismiss a key
> > 'application' that is used by a significant group of computer users
> > seems a little short sighted.
> 
> No.  The free software foundation cares about all users, but we
> rightly see that third world users get a lot more benefit from having
> business, scientific and educational software they can use and
> maintain freely than you or I get from having the ability to maintain
> Grand Theft Auto.
> 
> Yes we would love these things to be free, and yes we see the value of
> those things as a way of attracting new users to free software.  The
> FSF does not have infinite resources, so some things are less
> important to us.

Couldn't agree more. Your comment just seemed a little on the totally
dismissive side when there is a potential knock on benefit to third
world users of a larger uptake of free software usage in the so called
developed countries. Personally I would not be at all surprised to see,
in a few years time, a growing threat to the big commercial companies
from free software developed in some third world countries. They have
some advantage in being unencumbered by migration issues and patent
battles and will undoubtedly develop a keen thirst for knowledge given
the necessary resources to work with. I suspect I am not the only one
when you look at Microsoft and the US's recent interest in putting US
style laws in place and clamping down on previously ignored piracy
problems in some countries.

> > I must stop playing devils advocate, I can feel the horns poking through
> > my hair now ;)
> 
> And there was I think it was just pointy hair :-P

Nah, that's only before I comb it before going on a customer visit ;)

-- 
Paul Tansom | Aptanet Ltd. | http://www.aptanet.com/