[fsf-community-team] Re: Welcome to the "fsf-community-team" mailing list

[Shane O']

Hello!



1.) My name is Shane O' and I am a Technology Trainer from Louisville,
Ky USA.  As an avid user of RSS I follow a lot of sites such as, but
not limited to: Linux.com, Phoronix, Defective By Design, FSF.org,
Distrowatch, Slashdot, several developer blogs, many science
publications, Digg, Lifehacker and the other trash-tech reads like
Gizmodo, etc.  On an average day, I might digest a couple of thousand
articles -- no joke.  I actively test and use software from Google,
Canonical (Ubuntu), Fedora, Yellow Dog, Wordpress, Webkit, and many
other projects and companies.  As a writer and artist, I publish
everything CC and do not believe in the notion of copyright anymore
than attribution for works done or cited.

2.) I've read all the articles.  I am a huge proponent of the "Four
Freedoms" and try to use as descriptive and concise language as
possible when evangelizing FLOSSware.

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* Excerpt: "Now with cloud computing and web-based applications,
even Linux users can use the same software as everyone else, through
their browsers. With other popular programs like Skype and Adobe Flash
producing Linux versions, the Linux desktop may finally be catching
on!"

While the aforementioned may seem like a trend of users towards
desktop Linux (GNU/Linux, and will be referred to as such from this
point on), to be more specific, it is a realization from developers
such as Adobe and the like, commanding them to push proprietary
technologies onto a rapidly evolving "free" landscape fraught with
challenges.  The competition is not for the prize of the best product
or helping people to foster technology, but the biggest profit.  With
these stakes, programmers must clutch onto their precious recipes of
secret source sauce for dear life.  For the folks at Adobe and other
companies, investment in one or two operating systems is futile, the
real goal is to leverage your technology against all alternatives,
even those that are superior, at any cost...  even freedom.  Such is
not to say that the blame rests solely on the shoulders of Adobe and
Co, end-users typically take the path of least resistance to Youtube.
Without proper education on alternative software choices, they too, as
users, propagate the erosion of freedom.  It is our duty as those that
understand, to acknowledge this struggle for domination on the side of
the developer, and the inherent dearth of information on the part of
the user, and help to promote better decision making.

Just as the in the world has been motivated through education to
embrace the cause of climate change, fair-trade, AIDS and breast
cancer research, and many other deplorable dilemmas facing our planet,
the banner must be raised for freedom of software.  GNU/Linux, and its
companion software technologies represent a sea-change in the world --
the ability of the people to create, to copy, to learn, to fix things,
to change things.  GNU/Linux allows a user to install whatever they
desire, only limited by their expertise or investment.  Distributions
or "distros," a slang term for a complete GNU/Linux operating system,
include many, if not all of the essentials needed to accomplish most
anything within the sights of a normal end-user.  By allowing
corporate software houses like Adobe to infiltrate popular distros
like Ubuntu, we undermine the potential for innovation; we remove the
need to solve a growing problem by creating another problem more
dreadful in implications.  Imagine a car that you could not fix, food
you could not cook, or clothing you could not put on by yourself --
this is the world of proprietary software.  You cannot learn about the
science when you take Flash on faith.

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(I only wrote about one excerpt due to time constraints and being in
transit, but I hope it will suffice.)



Glad to be onboard!

-Shane O'