Re: Free Software X Windows

[John Darrington]

Free software is about freedom.  And freedom means not forcing anybody
to do anything.  If a user understands the moral and practical problems
of Windoze and still chooses to use it, then that is their decision.

So personally, I don't have any problem with publically available windoze
binaries of PSPP (so long as they respect the licence), or any other free
software.  It may also help someone who is considering changing their 
proprietary Windoze OS to a free GNU/Linux OS to make up their mind.  For 
this reason, the GNU project publishes a list of free software for windoze:
http://www.gnu.org/software/for-windows.html

Having said that, I think it's important that windoze users are informed about
the ethical problems of non-free software.  So I would like to see every web 
page
offering free binaries for non-free operating systems, having a link to an 
appropriate URL explaining the issues.  The web page 
http://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software 
might be a good choice.

The official GNU policy on this is clear. GNU software running on a free OS
must work at least as good, preferably better, than when running on a non-free
OS.  So the Windoze version will never work better than the GNU/Linux one.


On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 11:09:03PM -0300, michel wrote:
     
     Hello,
     
     A teacher told me that he is worried about the Windows version of PSPP.
     According to him I'm collaborating with Windows and fighting against Free
     Software,
     since with my binaries the users don't have to change to a open OS.
     
     I myself thing that any change must be gradual, and so make those versions
     helps the process,
     because users can migrate step by step to an open environment. I don't
     think users will migrate
     immediately to a 100% Opensource system. It's more likely that they will
     change a software by
     time. Here on Brazil, a lot of users already know and uses Open Office,
     for example.
     
     What do you think about this?
     
     Best regards,
     
     Michel Boaventura
     
     
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