Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Manchester Anarchist Bookfair, 7th June 2008

[Lucy]

On 04/06/2008, Simon Ward <address@hidden> wrote:
>  Now, we're not promoting software that people necessarily know, or is
>  good to maintain.  We're promoting software that's free.  The best free
>  software distribution I have heard of is gNewSense (at least it seems to
>  be the popular choice).  Although I don't use gNewSense, I have the
>  technical ability to learn and help people with it.  I have no problem
>  promoting it.

I can understand that and it does make sense for a free software
group, but personally I cannot solely promote a distribution that I
would not use (although I will happily promote it alongside other
distros and the open cd). I know that it's somewhat hypocritical for a
free software group to distribute proprietary software, but I'm
prepared to do that if it gets the free software message across to
more people because I don't consider a 100% free software system to be
realistic for most users at this time.

>  I do have a problem promoting a distribution in the name of free
>  software that installs non‐free software without having the user make an
>  informed decision.  I understand these may be considered bugs, but
>  fixing them is not a high priority.  That, I'm uncomfortable with.

Like I said earlier, Ubuntu does tell the user that non-free drivers
have been installed and informs them of the dangers. It also provides
an easy way to remove them again too.

I think we might have to agree to disagree on a few points. This
discussion has been really thought provoking so far. It's surprised me
how much we all agree on and yet how important the tiny differences
can be.