[SWLUG] Free as in freedom

[Gerald Davies]

On 10 August 2013 01:25, Hugh Mayfield <hugh.mayfield at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I wondered to what extent people in this group are interested in free
> software as opposed to simply open source?  To what extent to people try to
> run fully free systems?

I don't any more.  I prefer UNIX-based, but that's it.  I don't
believe free will get you the best at the moment, but that's personal
opinion.  It's a nice ideal, though.

I will happily pay for OS X for desktop usage (£30-ish), then install
LibreOffice, Gimp, VLC, Adium, MacVim, etc.  Not keen on the current
state of the Linux desktop - seems to have got itself in a pickle
again (Gnome 3 - ugh, Unity - ugh, KDE - ugh, haven't switched to Mate
or gone back to a Blackbox variant like Fluxbox... yet).  Paid for
Apple and Android apps/utils.  I'm not keen on paying for big
applications when I can find a free equivalent, though.  I'd happily
pay for Sublime if I used it more, too.  Yes, I use binary blobs,
codecs, drivers, etc.

Mostly run Debian at home (yes, on a desktop too), RPis, VPS, etc.
Like others here, I've used all sorts - variants of BSD, Linux,
Solaris, OS X, etc, etc.

> Does the group see itself as supporting GNU+Linux or simply Linux?

Erm, we've got users that like Solaris variants, FreeBSD, etc :)  I'd
prefer it to be a more open group in terms of what our interests are.