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Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Post Bug Reporting talk (was Apologies and thanks.


From: Simon Ward
Subject: Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Post Bug Reporting talk (was Apologies and thanks.)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 23:21:16 +0000
User-agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14)

On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 10:02:52PM +0000, Lucy wrote:
> I'd like to see the word 'freetard' banned from this list. It's an
> incredibly insulting and childish word that helps no one.

It’s definitely a word to be avoided, and I hope that people will
consider the insulting nature of it should they ever think of using it
in future.  I’m not for banning words or phrases, use them at your own
risk.

> I wouldn't say that someone who uses free software simply because it
> costs nothing is selfish. I'd call them lucky. I understand that
> people on this list are interested in doing more than simply using
> free software and there are loads of different ways to contribute. So
> I don't think that someone who has yet to submit a bug report is
> somehow lesser than someone who has.

Some people on this list may well only be interested in using free
software, and have no real intentions of contributing to it.  I don’t
think they are lesser people either.  We want people to benefit from
free software, that is one of the reasons it exists.

I prefer to use free software because of the freedoms I get.  I feel
obliged to contribute in some way, but no free software licence forces
people to do so.  Forcing people to contribute conflicts with freedom 0.
Quoting from the free software definition[1]:

    “The freedom to run the program means the freedom for any kind
    of person or organization to use it on any kind of computer
    system, for any kind of overall job and purpose, without being
    required to communicate about it with the developer or any other
    specific entity. In this freedom, it is the user's purpose that
    matters, not the developer's purpose; you as a user are free to
    run a program for your purposes, and if you distribute it to
    someone else, she is then free to run it for her purposes, but
    you are not entitled to impose your purposes on her.”

Deriding people, something that can have an adverse psychological
effect, for not contributing is imposing on them.

I hope that’s clear.

[1]: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

Simon
-- 
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a
simple system that works.—John Gall

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