[FSF India] Talking about free software in schools

[ab@gnu.org.in]

"Nagarjuna G." <nagarjun@hbcse.tifr.res.in> writes:

> On 6 Nov 2001, M.P.Anand Babu wrote:
>    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?
I'm sorry, I did not get the context. Using such opportunities to
talk about Free Software is a smart way. Because You are directly
addressing the ignorant.

best regards
-- 
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