=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re:_[Fsfe-ie]_Cumann_Sc=F3p-R=EDomhoideas nahEireann=3F?=
Niall Douglas
s_fsfeurope2 at nedprod.com
Sun Nov 2 19:57:09 CET 2003
On 2 Nov 2003 at 12:12, David Golden wrote:
> I did NOT intend to leave wiggle room to introduce nonfree stuff or
> anti-gpl wackiness. I will be charitable and assume by "solving his
> problems" Niall meant that it removed ambiguity he perceived to be
> introduced by common usage of "Free" and "open", not that it left such
> wiggle room...
You are correct, I don't like people deliberately phrasing things in
a deceptive fashion. As you know David, I hold there is morality in
everything and especially engineering, being such a force for good
that it is, should naturally attain for a high standard of morals.
It's not the free software movement's fault, but "free" in English
means "free of cost" first and "free of restriction" second - and
*that* in my opinion means that "free software" is a misleading name.
> IMHO the best English translation is still "Irish Free Software
> Organisation", and if "Free" is perceived ambiguous by some party,
> that's not so bad anyway, since it means one can explain the FSF
> philosophy when they ask for clarification...
If we were all in Spain right now, I'd be 100% happy with
"Organisation Software Libre Irlandes" because that says what it
really is.
I know that what I'm saying is being pedantic, but you must all
remember that we live within a clique where the term "free software"
has a meaning not equivalent to that perceived by the wider public -
ie; most computer users and managers of business. Therefore to choose
this term to name a lobby organisation acting in such arenas is to
practice the same form of dishonesty as I have outlined above.
Now OTOH, if it's a stated goal that this organisation shall as a
primary purpose be lobbying business to move to free software, you do
want to keep that name as a PR mechanism. I however will then have
nothing to do with it personally, though I'll continue barracking
from the sidelines :)
Cheers,
Niall
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