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

[Dave Crossland]

2008/5/6 Iain Roberts <address@hidden>:
>
> As a liberal, I believe that it's not morally wrong for people to act in
> such as way as to harm themselves.  If he chooses to constrain
> what he can do with software, it's not my business to tell him not
> to, just as it's not my business to tell him to give up smoking or
> drinking for his own good.  (And that assumes that he *does* harm
> himself in some way by choosing proprietary software, which I
> very much doubt).

You ought to tell people who harm themselves to stop doing so, but
forcing them to do so cannot be justified.

> As for affecting others - it simply doesn't (not in the real world,
> anyway).

It does, but you are exaggerating its effect.

> How does his choosing to run Windows make any
> difference at all to my ability to run Linux, OpenOffice or
> anything else?

When people send you data in formats only understood by proprietary
software, they pressure you to use proprietary software and it is
inconvenient for them to convert the data to a free format, and for
you to wait while they do this, or find some other way to get the job
done.

> Does it make it harder for me to download
> them from the Internet?

Of course not

> If someone comes to him and asks
> for a word processor, his answer might be "I can't let you have
> Microsoft Word, but you can download OOo from the website".
> How is that different from the answer he'd give if he were
> running OOo?

If he sent them an OOXML file, and then the someone comes asking for a
word processor that can read that file, what will his answer be?

> Free software is good.  I like having those freedoms and I
> choose to have them in most cases.  Choosing proprietary
> software isn't morally bad, though - it's just a personal choice.

Choosing proprietary software is morally bad. Please read
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-free.html that explains in full :-)

-- 
Regards,
Dave

I support www.gnuherds.org -
democratic free software jobs