[Bug-gnupedia]Non-free programs

[Tom Chance]

I think that what we should perhaps do is put this
discussion by the side for a while, because it doesn't
seem to be getting anywhere. I think that for now we
should follow the policy of the FSF, GNU, and what RMS
wrote in his original announcement. That is that we
will ourselves use no non-free software, and we should
not condone the submission of articles written with
non-free software. So we should try and make people
submit articles in the web form, by email (plain text)
or by uploading free-format-files like .txt etc.

We can supply an form for people to fill in if they
really want/need to submit M$ Word or other formats,
which we can consider invidually (to try and
discourage it, because it does after all seem to
contravene somewhat the efforts of the FSF and so what
we should in turn be trying to achieve). 

We should also provide a very simple FAQ for every
non-free software we can think of, to show very simply
how to save as a free format (like in M$Word.. Open
the file menu, click on Save as, change the file type
to plain text (txt) and click save). That way it will
be dead easy for people to submit otherwise.

At first I thought accessibility was the only issue,
but really we are a GNU project and so should act like
one. And asking people to submit in a form or
converting .txt isn't much to ask really. Not unless
somebody has 50 tarballed word files, when we can
offer to do it for the author.

Tom Chance


--- Mike Warren <address@hidden> wrote: > "Hook"
<address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > We're talking about a practical issue of allowing,
> or not, potential
> > authors to use and submit articles written using
> the worlds most
> > common word processing software.
> 
> Free software is not about practicality, but about
> principles. If
> pragmatism is what you want, the open source
> movement (not free
> software) is the answer.
> 
> > Currently I've not heard of Microsoft claiming
> *any* rights over
> > content produced using their software, and I'd
> appreciate someone
> > quoting chapter and verse if I'm wrong.
> 
> This isn't the issue. Word is not a free format, and
> Microsoft has
> pursued authors of programs which include support
> for some of their
> formats (I posted an article here earlier).
> 
> > If there was a practical alternative, then, yes,
> I'd agree, but
> > there isn't.
> 
> Who cares if there's a ``practical'' alternative or
> not; practicality
> has nothing to do with this.
> 
> > There are a large number of able, intelligent
> people out there who
> > have struggled to get comfortable with MS Word and
> are likely to be
> > reluctant to change for reasons which they
> probably won't be
> > interested enough to understand.
> 
> They don't have to change what software they use.
> 
> > Discriminating aginst them is far worse than any
> editorial control.
> 
> Then we should use IIS on Windows 2000 and forget
> about the entire
> free software movement.
> 
> -- 
> address@hidden
> <URL:http://www.mike-warren.com>
> GPG: 0x579911BD :: 87F2 4D98 BDB0 0E90 EE2A  0CF9
> 1087 0884 5799 11BD
> 
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