[LIG] Re: [FSF India] Re: WB Govt ties up with MSFT

[Khuzaima A. Lakdawala]

Dear Raju,

Raju Mathur <raju@linux-delhi.org> writes:

> While I agree that freedom is the most important facet of Free
> Software, I deliberately omitted mentioning it in the letter.

What kind of a compromise is this? We might as well shut down FSF-I
then. If we are *deliberately* not going to talk about freedom, FSF-I
loses it reason to exist. It just becomes an Open Source body. RMS
wouldn't even have agreed to come here for its inauguration if he knew
that we were going to *deliberately* omit mentioning freedom in our
arguments.

> The idea was to create a document which would present hard facts which
> cannot be debated away.

How can our fundamental rights be debated away? It makes no sense!

Pappu definitely hit the bull's eye when he said:

        On the other hand, I feel that if we don't speak of freedom or
        hide it behind the other facts, the whole exercise becomes
        meaningless.

If you must go ahead with the letter as it is, *deliberately* leaving
out "the most important facet of Free Software", please do, but please be
kind enough to remove the terms Free Software and Electronic Freedom
from its opening line to read:

        We, the Open Source proponents in India...

It's a pity, because the letter states and explains many of the
*other* benefits of Free Software so nicely and lucidly. If only it
did not shy away from stating the *main point* of Free Software, it
would have made a powerful letter.

Best regards,
Khuzaima

-- 
Khuzaima A. Lakdawala