[Fsf-friends] Good s/w promotes ideology on its own ... we can help for sure

Raman.P raamanp@yahoo.co.in
Fri, 29 Nov 2002 11:52:26 +0000 (GMT)


I agree with Tarun Gaur's view. We need to care more
about certain things which we developer may think very
trivial. I have faced few such. For examples in GNOME,
the default font for terminal [came with Redhat], is
too small and really not very appealing. Few, of my
collegues didn't like it,it took long time for me
convince them that changing is easy.  [remember first
impression is lasting impression]. That first
impression still lingers in their mind and they think
MS-Win is the best for endusers. We can win over many
of them by constant support and persuation. 
    But it will be better if make our presentations
also good and simple thus winning people in the first
instance itself. As Tarun says we need to do lot of
development and improvement in the interfaces. Though
our philosophy is strong, that alone will not lead to
acceptance.

Raman.P
--- Tarun Gaur <gaur_tarun@hotmail.com> wrote: > Hi
Ajith,
> 
> By the likes of it, it seems that you are quite
> senior to me when it comes 
> to the industry. As far as linux goes, i think i am
> my self a sort of 
> vetran. Now, I totally agree with you that criticism
> alone cannot improve 
> things. But friend , the ideology is based on how
> well it can be accepted by 
> the masses and anything inferior is not generally
> accepted ( though we may 
> quote exceptions, but remember exceptions are always
> in minority ). Now 
> "inferior" is a relative term. Something that may
> not be inferior at BARC 
> (for scientists) may be inferior for the masses
> (because the needs are 
> different).
> 
> I have never doubted our ability to write wonderful
> software. But we have 
> ignored the "interfaces" for the masses for too
> long. I am sure Richard 
> Stallman agrees.
> 
> Now, you have yourself mentioned that FSF is
> currently worrying about 
> helping school children take on GNU/Linux. Now, lets
> just for a moment pause 
> and ponder over the needs of these kids and put our
> software on test. Now 
> lets forget the problems, lets try and find answers.
> 
> As far as the ideology goes, it is spreading and
> will spread even more the 
> moment we start touching the masses. Projects like
> Gnome and KDE have taken 
> giant strides in the direction. But there is scope
> of improvement.
> 
> Now, to put this point thru i need help of people
> like you to endorse the 
> fact that we need to improve the interfaces, we need
> to consolidate the 
> services on GNU/Linux, we need to simplify the
> structure etc and believe me, 
> we are all set to push Microsoft software to a
> corner if not oblivion.
> 
> Look at the current scenario,
>       - microsoft is in a transition phase
>       - We are real good at Server side solutions
>       - They are consolidating their servers
>       - We are working on GUIs
> 
> Now, we know it is peanuts for people to write
> Desktop versions of Operating 
> System who are good at Enterprise Servers. Desktops
> touch the masses and 
> this world belongs to masses as masses are in
> MAJORITY.
> 
> Now friends, Let us all contribute. Let us do our
> bits and be sure we will 
> reign supreme. A Dream of an ideology reigning
> supreme is not that bad after 
> all.
> 
> Free software for the brave GNU World.
> 
> With regards,
> Tarun Gaur
> 
> 
> >From: Ajith Kumar <ajith@nsc.ernet.in>
> >To: Tarun Gaur <gaur_tarun@hotmail.com>
> >Subject: Re: [Fsf-friends] Read Richard Stallman's
> mail
> >Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2002 14:33:13 +0530
> >
> >Tarun Gaur wrote:
> >
> > > Hi Mr. Ajith
> > >
> > > I am shocked at the way you have interpreted my
> quest for ever 
> >improvement.
> > > According to your interpretation, all the
> CRITICS carry some kind of
> > > infiriority complex ? Brother, i am just asking
> all my friends to 
> >improve. I
> > > will quote Richard Stallman's mail posted on
> fsf-friends, where he says 
> >that
> > > common user has to be taken serious care of.
> >
> >First of all i am not an FSF member. I have used
> GNU/Linux for  
> >applications
> >like
> >particle accelerator control and physics
> experiments. Nuclear Science 
> >Centre's
> >control system runs on a network of 6 machines , 24
> hours 365 days and I am 
> >yet
> >to see a
> >'hanging' OS , running redhat 5.2 distro.  I
> developed it  5 years ago.
> >We have a  Data Acquisition System  that is fastest
> among the other labs 
> >like
> >BARC etc.,
> >done in Linux.  Almost the entire organization uses
> it for communication,
> >office work etc.
> >
> >I know that it is not perfect. I myself face a lot
> of problems when try to
> >convince people to
> >use it. I had a talk with RMS when he visited NSC 
> in March. He asked me to
> >give more stress
> >on spreading the ideology than trying to get more
> people just using Free
> >Software.
> >I spend a lot of time and energy  to help schools
> to use GNU/Linux.
> >The point is we should not  project  weaknesses
> alone, the stregths also 
> >should
> >be projected at the
> >same time.
> >
> >As far as I know FSF is  mainly worrying about  how
> to get the  schools in
> >Kerala to use Free Software.
> >
> >with regards
> >
> >Ajith
> 
> 
> ____________________________________________________

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