[Fsf-friends] Use of Windows by some speakers

[Arun M]

Dear Rakesh,

> Why didnt you have the same feeling when you initiated the bloody drama in
> the name of Novell protest at Cochin conference...?????

What did I do at CUSAT ?

> A hand full of students and teachers were working hard day and night to make
> the Cochin event a great success... No one like you were there to help
> them...

I would like to appreciate all of them for their efforts. In fact many
of the organisers
of CUSAT event participated in conference held in Trivandrum. They were part of
the organising committee of FSFS conference right from the beginning.


> And at the end of the day, you tried your level best to demoralize them....

I am sorry if I tried to demoralize them. But i dont understand how I did that.

As a free software activists I respect freedom of speech. While myself
or organisations
I belong are not involved in any campaign against novell, I respect
the freedom of
others to campaign against Novell or even free software. When your
freedom of speech
is chained what is the point in having free software ?

I did protest against manhandling of Anivar and other free software
activists MES college.
I still keep that position.

Protest like one that happened in Kochin happened in FSFS also. At
least some of us
raised voice against those who spoke against the interest of our
movement. But none
of us manhandled any one.  I was happy that Sunil pointed out the
mistake. I would
have been more happy if he had protested more strongly (Sunil said he
did protest and
there were no one to support) at the venue and informed the audience
about the mistake.

Now, please tell me, what did I do wrong at CUSAT ? Do you think I
should have kept silent ?
Do you know that I've been locked in a room with people shouting at me
and Mr Amarnath Raja
(IEEE/InApp) saying that we wont be allowed to go out ? Is this the
civilized manner in which
a protest should be dealt with ? Why did our friends and fellow
organisers did not come to resolve
the issue, until we started the protest(against manhandling) ? What
actions were taken against
those who harassed students from MES who just took photographs of what
happened ?

We did not protest against use of proprietary software in the
conference(we should have).
In e-governance session one speaker, after doing some google research,
 was telling the
audience who difficult it is to use GNU/Linux. I doubt if he used
GNU/Linux ever in his life.

And at the end, one of the key organiser started campaigning against
me and FSF India for
all that happened in CUSAT. Why me and FSF India, there were several
others who protested
that day, I was just one among them, Ranjith(Lecturar, Barton Hill
Engg College),
Anil kumar K S( Head E-Gov, Kerala State IT Mission), Pramod, Vimal
(SPACE), Anoop (ZYXWare),
and many others.

I am willing to correct if you can point out my mistake.

Why FSF India and I became the target ? Time will tell more...

warmly
arun.