Re: [Fsuk-manchester] the non-free neighbour asking for help dilemma

[Chris Rogers]

Tim,

I accept it's a dilemma given your strong and sincere views about free 
software.  You have a similar standpoint to Mercury Merlin, a contributor on 
another list.

Of course you should help your brother.  If you don't, he may conclude that 
you think more of a piece of software than you do of him.  And when it all 
comes to it, family is all you have...

> From a technical point of view, it does sound as though removing the 
dual-boot option has screwed up the MBR and a bit of tweaking with a 
partition manager/boot manager may fix it without the need to reinstall 
Windows.

hth...

Chris

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim Dobson" <address@hidden>
To: <address@hidden>
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 6:32 PM
Subject: [Fsuk-manchester] the non-free neighbour asking for help dilemma


> Ok it's not really a dilemma but:
>
> I'm sure many people have been in this situation, and different people
> will have different opinions.
>
> My brother's Windows XP computer has stopped booting. Apparently it
> won't boot from CD because of GRUB from previous (now removed) debian
> install.
> This is obviously highly unlikely. It's probably the BIOS.
>
> He wants me to take a look at it.
>
> I am unwilling to assist in reinstalling Windows etc. because of moral
> objections to non-free software, however I don not wish him to *pay*
> someone else to do something, and then to top it off he is my brother,
> whom I don't really want to fall out with.
>
> I suspect he won't sympathise with my moral views regarding Free
> software were I to explain them to him.
>
> While, it seems relatively obvious to me the situation which I think I
> must take in this situation,
>
> what would you do?
>
> Tim
>
> --
> www.tdobson.net
> ----
> If each of us have one object, and we exchange them, then each of us
> still has one object.
> If each of us have one idea, and we exchange them, then each of us now
> has two ideas.   -  George Bernard Shaw
>
>
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