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

V. Sasi Kumar vsasi@vsnl.com
29 Nov 2002 18:27:08 +0530


I think there is some point in what Tarun says. He has presented it at a
forum of FSF where he should be concerned about the problems involved in
promoting Free Software than about praising it.

Why do we face problems when we try to convince others about using Free
Software? I think we have to see that a lot of people are more concerned
about the ease of use than about the philosophy. While spreading the
philosophy is important, it becomes equally important to get more people
to use Free Software. Otherwise proprietary software is going to
dominate. And why should we try to convince people to use Free Software
if we are not bothered about how many people use it? We could be content
with talking about Freedom and leaving the decision on the kind of
software to use to the people.

Having said that, I do not mean that Free Software is significantly more
difficult to use. Having moved from Windows to Gnu/Linux only about a
year back, I know that there are several points in favour of Gnu/Linux.
But there still remain several things that could easily put off a new
user. For instance, let us take the case of a word processor. OpenOffice
is as good as any other. But it takes a lot of time to open. A person
who has been using MS Office or Lotus WordPro or WordPerfect would find
this rather irritating. It should be possible to fix this up. AbiWord is
shaping up very well and could be a good replacement. For scientific
purposes, I am sure that Gnu/Linux offers a much better features.

In spite of all this, there is sufficient reason to take the trouble of
using only Free Software - when we consider the ideology. So, I feel, if
we have to make an impact, we have to look at both aspects - philosophy
and user-friendliness (or whatever one may want to call it). So, I think
we should take what Tarun has to say as an introspection rather than as
a criticism.

V. Sasi Kumar


On Fri, 2002-11-29 at 16:21, Tarun Gaur 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
> 
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online 
> http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Fsf-friends mailing list
> Fsf-friends@mm.gnu.org.in
> http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends
>