Re: [Fsfe-uk] NCC Filetab for Linux

[MJ Ray]

Tom Weiss <address@hidden> wrote:
> [Tom Weiss says] 

Charlie says: thinking cats can talk is not healthy.

> You are absolutely right about freedom, but you must think about how
> best this can be achieved - a world of 100% free software is an
> exceedingly long way off, and there is a reasonable argument that some
> niche areas will always remain proprietary (e.g. scientific instrument
> control software, ERP systems).

Personally, I don't think there is a reasonable argument.  There is an
argument that the same funding model for the "mainstream" applications won't
work for "niche" ones, but that doesn't mean that the proprietary model is
the only one possible.  In fact, I suspect that Free Software has made its
biggest inroads in the niches, less noticeable than the "battle for the
desktop".  It's conquering the mainstream that is going to be hardest.

The best thing for Free Software supporters to do is to support creation of
Free Software tools that can do the tasks you need to do on GNU/Linux (or
maybe elsewhere).  If you have to pay for that, so be it.  Surely it's a
better investment than proprietary?
-- 
MJR ,----------------------------------------------------
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