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

[Tony Arnold]

Pete,

My sentiments exactly!

Tony. (Excuse the top posting)

Pete Morris wrote:
> 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
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Tony Arnold,                        Tel: +44 (0) 161 275 6093
Head of IT Security,                Fax: +44 (0) 870 136 1004
University of Manchester,           Mob: +44 (0) 773 330 0039
Manchester M13 9PL.                 Email: address@hidden