[Fsf-friends] Continuation....of Basics......]

[Sriharsha Vedurmudi]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: [Fsf-friends] Continuation....of Basics......
Date: 	Fri, 24 Sep 2004 18:14:53 +0530
From: 	Joe Steeve <joe_steeve@gmx.net>
To: 	Sriharsha Vedurmudi <sriharsha.v@redpinesignals.com>
CC: 	fsf-friends@mm.gnu.org.in
References: 	<4152CE02.1040805@redpinesignals.com> 
<26026.1095965308@www1.gmx.net> <4153C2C7.60309@redpinesignals.com>



Sriharsha Vedurmudi <sriharsha.v@redpinesignals.com> writes:
> Looks like I am facing fury, I did not intend to offend
> anyone. All I said was there is a fairly good chance of
> computer-illiterate people getting cheated by malicious people.

Hmm.. I'm sorry if it sounded harsh. But i wanted to make a point
clear that these Free Software developers are usually researchers
who are good in their respective areas. There is no way that
people will get cheated. Even if a malicious programmer puts
malicious code hidden in his program other community programmers
will see this and warn the community. This is not a thing to be
worried about with Free Software.

> Coming to the concept of Digital Signatures, I have not seen for
> myself nor seen my administrators bother anything about digital
> certificates/signatures.

Well, it is a sad issue. Coz, every administrator is supposed to
know about Digital signatures. Its such a common thing today. See,
my mail has a Digital signature attached to it which authenticates
that this mail was indeed sent by me.

> "Find a link, download, install and use...." is a very common
> concept among the vast majority of non-software companies who
> are interested in using a popular software, if it is free. Now,
> dont you think that cheating such a company is easy? Honestly,
> one can mutate a program (atleast the C source code is in plain
> ASCII?) and then take the CD to that company saying he/she has

In this case, no matter whether the software is a Free Software or
a proprietary one, they will still suffer. I can take a
proprietary program and modify it binarily and then give it to
you. Again the criteria is that your company is believing me. In
that scenario, you have no other go.. so, no matter whether you
are using Free Software or Proprietary software, under these
conditions you are doomed.

> computer literate) are not cheated by such people, therby
> creating a false notion about free software (which in-turn
> reduces the support for the struggle)

The Free Software people can warn about imposters. But they cannot
stop them. I know of a company in my locality which tried creating
a LUG to pull students into their training programme. The LUG
creation was simply a joke to advertise to the students. The funny
thing is people go for it. They need awareness. This awareness can
be brought about only by making changes in the granule levels. I
know how much has changed in my college after I stepped in. I'm
not boasting. I want to tell that my choice has helped a lot of
people around me. So will your choice.

> gcc toolchain (after an initial port of it to one of our companies 
> custom processor architecture) and it truely represents the Spirit of 

If your company is going to release the processor in some
product., please release the ported GCC. That would help a lot of
people. :)

Cheers,
Joe

PS: I'm not sure whether this mail will reach FSF-Friends. My
mailserver is being blocked by the TIFR mailservers :( So, if it
does not make it to the mailing list., please repost it on my
behalf.

-- 
A proud GNU user
Homepage : http://www.joesteeve.tk/
Weblog   : http://gnukid.blogspot.com/