Re: [Fsuk-manchester] The 4 freedoms in every day life

[MJ Ray]

Anna Morris wrote:
> I would really like a wide variety of everyday/real life situations to
> choose from for examples of the FS freedoms in action, so I don't want
> to think them all up myself.

OK, here's my contribution: on Saturday, I got a phone call from a
distant (in family not geography) relative who was having problems
connecting their new second-hand EeePC netbook to their home wifi.

I popped in on my way home and was confused that the Networking setup
tool didn't even seem to be trying to connect.  The "Details>>>"
button provided no details at all.  So I opened a terminal window on
the netbook and used the common tools to find and view the debugging
information.  That let me figure out what was going on and how it was
going wrong: it was trying to connect to someone else's wifi at the
same time, but the poor thing only had one wifi device, so the correct
connection was just waiting forever.  I then corrected the details in
the user-friendly Networking setup tool and away it went.

Because the people writing the software for the Eee had the freedom to
modify a general-purpose operating system and distribute it, it had
enough debugging tools (written and shared by others) that I was
familiar with that I could fix it in about 15-20 minutes, even though
I'd never seen that particular system before.  I didn't need to get
special tools or ask the manufacturer for permission like you need to
with some things (mobile phones, I'm looking at you!).

So freedom and co-operation on software lets users find support more
easily, which means faster fixes, even if you're not a software hacker.

Hope that helps,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
Webmaster, Debian Developer, Past Koha RM, statistician, former lecturer.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire for various work http://www.software.coop/products/