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

[etali]

Hi

I live in the UK and I've been into computers all my life.  I wrote my 
first (very simple) program on an MSX, and I have fond memories of 
typing code from books / magazines into a ZX Spectrum to play really 
simple games.

I first encountered GNU/Linux in the late 1990s, and I've been 
experimenting with FOSS (is that term OK since it emphasises the Free as 
well as the Open?) since then.  At first I was mostly using GNU/Linux 
for servers.  I experimented with desktop stuff, but even now a huge 
part of my job simply requires Windows, and a VM / WINE just doesn't cut it.

I've been giving back via support / advocacy / bug reporting for a long 
time, but in the past year I've found that I now have more time, and I'd 
like to use it to do more.  Since I use Ubuntu and Xubuntu at home I'm 
becoming more active in their communities, and I'm learning packaging.  
I've also started to pay more attention to the political side of things 
- e.g. the differences between licenses.

My main interests are security, education, and gaming.  I read a lot of 
mainstream tech sites (and the tech sections in UK papers), and 
education blogs.

I've read those important links - several times!  I keep re-reading them 
actually, I want to make sure I have everything down - especially the 
Intellectual Property stuff.


In response to the excerpts:

1) It's worth noting that Stallman had more in mind than just price when 
he started the Free Software Foundation.  Yes, it's great that some 
flavours of GNU/Linux are available at no cost, and that the source is 
open, but Stallman wanted to promote free as in "freedom", rather than 
free as in "beer".  The idea is to give people freedom of choice, and 
control over what they do with their computer and the software it runs.

2)Cloud computing is a very loosly defined term these days which many 
people seem to use to just refer to any web based application.  It's 
true that GNU/Linux users can take advantage of most web based apps, and 
that is a good thing, but I'm not that convinced about the availability 
of proprietry applications like Flash and Skype.  Choice is nice, but 
moving from one set of proprietry applications on Windows to a similar 
set on a different OS doesn't seem like progress towards freedom in my 
view.  There are free software versions of IM clients and the flash 
browser plugin.  It would be good to see more people using those.

3) I have to admid that I wasn't aware of this issue until now! The post 
draws attention to an important issue.  It's scary to think that this is 
being discussed behind closed doors.  It sounds like more a "copyright" 
issue than an "intellectual property" one, though?

--
Lesley Harrison