Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Freelance user support

[Quiliro Ordóñez Baca]

El dom 06 jul 2014 10:27:27 ECT, peter green escribió:
> Quiliro Ordóñez Baca wrote:
>> Sounds like a cool marketing strategy. I think it is very important
>> to recognize freedom too in the marketing because people often forget
>> it and think that the reason to change to free software is for short
>> lasting motivations.
> There are many reasons people use free software, some use it because
> they belive propietary software is unethical, some use it because of
> the price, some use it because they are fed up with tracking
> installation counts for software licensing. Some use it because it's
> the best tool for the job. Some use it because they don't want to be
> tied to a single vendor for bugfixes. Some use it because they want to
> be able to customise the software to fit their own needs.
>
> I think you should bear in mind that your clients reasons may not be
> the same as yours.

That is precisely what I am saying and to promote the fact that the 
motivations to move to free software which involve freedom are long 
lasting.

>>  Also, mentioning freedom centers quality around it instead of
>> temporary functionality in lieu of freedom. This saves the business
>> from installing non-free drivers of firmware in favour of raising the
>> user's freedom.
> I don't think one should conflate drivers and firmware. I also don't
> think one should let perfect be the enemy of good.

Well then what is the problem with using Microsoft? It has a lot of 
"open source" software which ignores the objective is freedom. With a 
partially free system there is not freedom. That does not mean there 
cannot be a gradual migration. I did it myself. I started giving 
support to a mix of free and non-free software. Now I only work with 
free software. The migration from some free software to nearly all 
freedom was difficult. (No one has total freedom yet...there is 
non-free hardware, bios and SaaSS.) Nevertheless, it is much better to 
do it directly to freedom. You get used to working with new non-free 
parts and that makes it hard to migrate.

> In an ideal world firmware would be free software too but in many
> cases the actual choice is between propietary firmware stored in the
> hardware and propietary firmware loaded from disk. I fail to see how
> the user is any more free with the former than the latter.

It is a step forward. The latter has already been surmounted. So there 
is no need to take steps backward.

> I would try to avoid any hardware that required propietary kernel mode
> drivers because they are likely to limit my freedom to upgrade the
> kernel in future.

Cool. That is the way.

> OTOH if the choices for meeting the customers requirements are a free
> OS with a handful of non-free drivers or a completely non-free stack I
> think a free software advocate would be mad to push someone towards
> the latter by refusing to implement the former.

It is always easier to be a double agent. Being loyal to freedom is not 
for everyone....It takes a lot of guts and putting juicy some benefits 
aside. Playing the double agent role will bite you in the end because 
it makes you compromise values.

I appreciate your opinion. Please do not think I disrespect it. 
Although I do not share your position, I can respect it because all 
opinions come from the respective person's prior experiences.
--
Saludos libres,
Quiliro Ordóñez
600 8579

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