[Fsf-friends] Re: FREE SOFTWARE THAT IS GOOD ...

[Harish Narayanan]

No, I don't think I was missing anything. I was waiting for this sort of 
response before I elaborated on parts of what I'd said earlier.

I didn't say at any point the masses do not matter. We're differing on 
how (and actually even why) this mass has to be built. You're saying 
there are areas where people aren't entirely comfortable with free 
software (currently not easy enough, say) so they need to be improved 
(by the end user point of view) before everyone will all mass adopt and 
hence the philosophy will spread. All I tried to point out is, by doing 
this, you will gain your masses. But all you are spreading is adoption 
of the software, nothing more.

I tried to say the software (for the most part) exists right now. And 
has existed for a while. A primary reason they aren't as wide spread are 
because of societal inertia, and because people aren't necessarily aware 
of the freedom they are giving up in using non-free software.

Random anecdote. I am typing this on a laptop from a prominent 
manufacturer which comes pre-installed with a popular non-free operating 
system. The first thing I tried to do when I bought it, is to return the 
operating system install discs and request a refund. I was informed that 
is not possible, as:

 a. I'd lose support if I formatted and installed another operating system.
 b. It is expensive for them to come and collect the discs (or have them 
pay me mail it in).
 c. They are required by contract to pay the operating system vendor a 
fee anyway, so they pass on the charges to me. They aren't interested in 
bearing the loss on my behalf.

Now, the ideal part of me directs me, on principle, to delete it anyway 
and install a free operating system. But a practical part informs me 
that 70$ (or whatever) of my hard earned money has gone into the 
pre-installed operating system. It keeps nagging me to keep this 
partition because it's convinced me "if I've spent for it, I cannot 
waste it".

Do I want it installed? No.
Do I need it installed? Not really.
Am I one of the 210 million who paid for it anyway? Yes.
Did I have much of a choice? Yes and no.
I could have tried really hard to find a company that sells a comparable 
machine without the popular operating system installed. But there are 
very few moderately big names that exist considering this operating 
system vendor has abused its power as a monopoly to force all major 
manufacturers to bundle it with their machines.

You did not say they don't value freedom. I said they've been 
conditioned to accept things the way they are. You didn't say they were 
unintelligent or don't understand. You did say it has to be "easy to 
achieve a desired set of functional tasks with minimum focus on 
technicalities" as a prerequisite to software's adoption. Now with that 
definition, and my lack of enthusiasm to try too hard, I will be quite 
happy with the original operating system my computer came with. Sure, it 
has some bugs and viruses hit often, but I can still get some things 
done. It's "good enough" on the surface.

At this point you're saying "give him a much better alternative, and 
he'll switch". I'm saying, "explain to him there is a decent free 
alternative, and the value of that freedom, and he'll switch". But the 
important difference here is someone who switched because I explained to 
them why, is much less likely to switch back when something even better 
is offered by the proprietary OS vendor.

I don't get your argument involving companies like RedHat. RedHat is a 
major supporter of many free software projects, and doesn't ship 
anything proprietary with their operating systems. They break even the 
most commonly used functionality like playing mp3s, to retain a fully 
free collection of software in their distributions. I respect them for 
this, and it has resulted in me re-encoding many CDs to other free 
formats. By your definition of good, I should have just installed a 3rd 
party XMMS plug in, say, and restored this functionality. It would have 
been "easier with less technicalities", right?

All I am attempting to say is, now that I've shifted with the right 
mindset, once mp5pro++ comes out, which is 10 times as small as Ogg 
Vorbis 3, and sounds 100 times better, I will not consider it. If I 
shifted purely because Vorbis sounded better, or I whined to the 
developers about making it technically better (and easier to use), or 
coded it myself and only advertised that it was technically better (and 
easier to use), I will be tempted to re-encode all my discs again in 
mp5pro++ is launched, eXtremeDRM+++ or not.

The mass that you gained when you first introduced them to the glory of 
the free alternative on the basis of its ease of use, will begin to fade 
away.

Of course, the technical community is a minuscule of the population. And 
this is just software. There are billions who probably won't even be 
affected in their lifetime in the least by any of this "free/non-free" 
nonsense with respect to something like computer code when their own 
villages don't have electricity or something. But every sort of social 
change needs some starts. This is a small one.

Harish | http://wahgnube.org/