Re: About free software in Swedish schools and Swedish identification/payment systems

[Hanno Perrey]

Hej Elias!

> Can this mailing list be a place where we could discuss questions
> related to free/libre software in Sweden? I hope so.

That is why I signed up anyway, but this is the first time I see a 
message (or post myself ;))

> - Software used by schools and universities. In my opinion they should
> use free software much more than they are doing and there are many
> strong arguments to support that, we should work on convincing people
> of this and showing them how to do it.

I fully agree and share your interest. Especially during the current 
pandemic, the investment into/dependency on proprietary software has 
increased significantly at least at the university I work at. Finding 
solutions has been more important than questioning the offers and 
investigating their long term costs/benefits. It would have been great 
were there a clear strategy with a commitment to free software in place 
beforehand -- but it is never too late! ;)

> - Indentification systems and banking: currently the "BankID"
> identification system and the related "Swish" payment system are very
> dominant in Sweden. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell they require
> proprietary software. Are there alternative solutions based on free
> software? If not, how can we work towards making such alternatives
> available in the future? There are strong arguments here to argue that
> it is wrong for institutions in society to require us to use
> proprietary software, often specifically Google/Apple things are
> required, it is wrong to force us to use that stuff.

I could not agree more. This is something of a pet peeve of mine; I am 
not using Swish myself and BankID as little as possible -- but that is 
almost impossible. Again, the pandemic has reduced the option of using 
e.g. cash significantly. The fact that accounts at either Google or 
Apple are required seems simply absurd.

So I'd love to discuss these topics and potential actions! =)

Best wishes,
Hanno