Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Ubuntu 9.10 Release Party - 30th October

[Pete Morris]

Let's be honest here guys, an Ubuntu launch party is more about cake than about 
politics. It's a chance for a load of rather geeky people to come together in a 
safe environment where they aren't likely to be assaulted by the football fans 
in the pub. It's a chance to wear that t-shirt you bought in good faith without 
feeling a total pillock. And mostly it's about social networking.

So with that said, lambasting such an event is a bit self-defeating, as we need 
these kinds of events to provide some welcome non-geekiness to the community. 
Whilst the event itself may not involve life changing utopian epiphanies, nor 
achieve a direct change of software licensing model, I for one prefer the taste 
of the cake than whatever the illustrious leader Stallman finds on his foot...

With free software there is a real danger of throwing the baby out with the 
bathwater. Which is better, a system which is 1% free software or a system 
which is 0% free software? Even though the other 99% is fully closed and 
proprietary, the 1% is still a starting point. We should be celebrating what 
has already been achieved rather than pointing and booing at what has yet to be 
achieved. If, as Lucy says, we are totally opposed to anything which doesn't 
reach some perceived standard of perfection, then we might as well give up now 
as I suspect we'll never actually achieve that standard. Aspire yes, reach no. 
If in 15 years we still haven't got anything resembling a workable production 
release of Hurd, I can't say I hold out much hope for the immediate future.

And as has also been mentioned, very few end users will be willing to sacrifice 
functionality for theoretical philosophical freedom. What use is a totally 
'free' operating system if it doesn't actually boot and you need to give a 
presentation in 15 minutes? It's not selling out to use Ubuntu, it's about 
acknowledging that we aren't perfect ourselves as a community, and sometimes 
need to get off our high-horse and learn from those around us ... including 
proprietary code. Then, when we've learned what we need to, we can go replicate 
and introduce freedom to that market area again.

So go to the launch party, eat some cake (which I might point out, you won't 
have to pay for -- how's that for free!), and let's all have a good time rather 
than sulking over pipe-dreams.

Just my £0.02

Pete