[FSF India] Talking about free software in schools

[Nagarjuna G.]

On 6 Nov 2001, M.P.Anand Babu wrote:

->"Nagarjuna G." <nagarjun@hbcse.tifr.res.in> writes:
->>    There is another problem.  The Mumbai group particularly
->>    started as a GNU/Linux Users Group, and not as FSF - India.
->>    When we went out and started talking about Freesoftware we
->>    talked about everything under the sun, such as Free/Open RH,
->>    SuSE, Caldera, Mandrake etc, including of course GNU/Debian.
->We dont need to care about non-ethical distributions. Why should we
->market for SuSe, Caldera, RedHat or Mandrake ?
->

   I will exemplify a situation that I have recently faced.  I
   was asked to give twelve special lectures in Mumbai University
   for the students of PGDIT.  I have not framed the syllabus for
   the course, though they gave me a free hand to make changes.
   But the syllabus contained references to redhat system.  For
   most of the aspects of my lectures I am and will be using
   Debian.  I did a demonstration install for both.  Do you call
   this marketing for RedHat?  I have accepted to lecture on the
   condition that I will be using Debian, except where RH
   specific matters are discussed.  They did agree to this.
   Imagine the result of this compromise.  I have an opportunity
   to speak to about three hours to a group of 55 students every
   week on free software, minus a few uneasy moments.

   Another situation: I was to give a 2hour lecture/demonstration
   on Emacs (which is My real OS).  When I went there I found out
   that they cant give me in the lecture hall a GNU/Linux
   machine.  What did I do?  I have installed Emacs on their
   windows machine and continued the talk, of course telling them
   that they are missing much of the magic.  These are the
   kinds of frequent situations that I face.  The places where I
   go to give presentations either have no GNU/Linux Machine or
   have other distros.  When they call me to fix the dates I do
   tell them what my preferences are, but as it turns out they
   cannot meet all my demands, for many of them haven't even
   heard about Debian distro.  What they tell me is that they
   already have RedHat Linux Lab.  Should I refuse to go and
   speak to them.  When we go out to have a dialogue on ethics
   and freedom, I cant behave as if ethics and freedom are things
   that can be decided as truth/false and refuse to talk.  As an
   interventionist, I am also resorting to politics.  Do you call
   this opportunism?


->Core members of what ?

   GNU/LUG of Mumbai, not FSF-I.


->What matters to us is the Ethics.  We need not be desperate about the
->head count.
->

   I am also not worried about the head count, but I dont think
   that ethical issues can be handled by binary (truth/false or
   black and white) tactics, because I do see a lot of gray area.
   This happens despite the fact that polarity is well defined: I
   make an effort to be as close to the pole of my choice as
   possible, but at exceptional times I compromise.


->>    wise to be with the heterogenous group and continue to talk
->>    about the ethics and politics of free software as and when the
->>    opportunity arises.  E.g., I dont refuse to install RH or SuSE
->>    in a workshop, though I would love to show them Debian.  I do
->I will refuse.

   I wont' refuse in exceptional situations, for the reasons
   mentioned above.  I cant' equate RH and SuSE under the same
   category as MS, and at the same time I will not also put them
   in the category of pure FreeSoftware.

   But please dont think that it is my mission to install RH/SuSE
   or but very bleak exception.  I remember having installed only
   twice of about 15 or so demonstrations that I did, the recent
   one is RH, which I have never used. Another time I had to
   install SuSE in a workshop.

   Nagarjuna