[Fsf-friends] Update 2 on my Blog post: Congrats From RMS

[Anivar Aravind]

Updated the blog post
http://anivar.movingrepublic.org/2008/national-free-software-conference-boycott-novell-turn-outs


1. Mail From RMS
==============

I received  a mail from RMS  (Richard Mathew Stallman) , the  founder
of Free Software movement. He says

    First of all, congratulations on being the first free software activist
    to be physically attacked  for a peaceful protest.
    This means our movement is gaining in stature ;-).

He also commented about our campaign strategy

    ANIVAR> Most of the participants in the Conference were newbies
and Novell is
    ANIVAR> the only GNU/Linux distro widely promoted in the exhibition. Our
    ANIVAR> protest is not targeted at Organizers or Novell. It was
just a way to
    ANIVAR> spread awareness on  Novell's evil trends  through the posters  to
    ANIVAR> prevent Novell's misguiding new users

    That's the right way to approach it.

2. ILUG Cochin's Event Report
====================

ILUG Cochin Released an Event Report about the event. The event Report says

    The series of events that happened was bad in terms of the organizers
    taking an unnecessary tough stand on the matter and not lending an ear to
    the actual facts.

    We were happy to raise our voice and protest with the
    Free Software community opposing the likes of forces like Novell. Indeed
    it was good to see a resistance in a programme of such magnitude like the
    National Conference. Although there is no doubt to the fact that the
    conference did its job, bringing people from all walks of life and ILUG
    Cochin did the job telling people the principles behind it, the opposition
    against Novell has also increased the significance and importance of the
    event thereby bringing about a lot of questions into the community which
    would not have been raised otherwise.

3. SMC's Statement
=============

<snip>
Members from SMC were part of the Programme Committee and the Souvenir
Committee. There were no indication that Novell was the platinum
sponsor of this Free Software Event. The organisers never communicated
about the sponsorship and thus betrayed the whole Free Software
community as Novell did. This is evident from the incidents that
occurred after the peaceful campaign to boycott Novell by the SMC
members & other Free Software Supporters present at the meeting.
</snip>

<snip>
SMC takes this opportunity to deeply condemn the organisers decision
to include Novell into the Free Software event. SMC urges the
organisers of the event to aplogize to the community on this dreadful
alliance with the notorious Novell Corporation and the way the
organisers treated Free Software Campaigners.
</snip>


Also Read Comments
http://anivar.movingrepublic.org/2008/national-free-software-conference-boycott-novell-turn-outs

Anivar Aravind
-- 
Any responsible politician should be encouraging a home grown Free
Software industry because it creates the basis for future jobs.
Learning Windows is like learning to eat every meal at McDonalds.