Marcus,
What we want to do is a CD (or other medium) that doesn't only contain free software but also information about the free software movement. All the way from its birth to the present. By doing this we hope to place each program in a wider perspective and describe not only what it is but also why it was written and maybe why it looks/works like it does.
We at the OpenCD did include some literature about open source/free software -- "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" for one, and "Free as in Freedom", along with several other essays. What you're proposing sounds rather more ambitious; sort of a biography-of-a-program, its beginnings, growth, and continuing development. I think it sounds interesting.
We hope to make this available so it can be deployed both on the OpenCD and Knoppix. We intend to make the first version in Swedish. After that we hope to have an English version if it is wanted. So Swedish contributors are wanted.
Well, speaking for the OpenCD, I think we could probably find space for such a thing, provided it wasn't too big, and fits in okay. And yes, we would want it in English. :-) Incidentally, we'd love to have a Swedish translation of the OpenCD -- we are working on the second edition right now, and it will have a new installer that's easier to localize. Could we get in touch with you in a couple of months once it's getting closer to the planned release date in March?
- Do you think this is this a good idea?
Yes.
- Do you want it?
Yes, if it's not too big and fits in with the OpenCD theme okay; I couldn't presume to speak for Knoppix. May I suggest focussing on a program that would be available in both the OpenCD and Knoppix? AbiWord, maybe.
- Does this already exist?
Well, Eric S. Raymond's "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" is pretty close to what you are proposing; it discusses the evolution of fetchmail. You can read it (in Swedish) at this url:
http://home.swipnet.se/swi/KatB-se.html
- Does my English make sense?
- If not, I'm sorry, did my best!
Your English is fine. Much better than some. (One fellow who contacted me via email didn't speak any English at all; he used babelfish.altavista.com to translate from Spanish.)
Will Martin Project Lead -- The OpenCD Project
<- Snip ->
Well, speaking for the OpenCD, I think we could probably find space for such a thing, provided it wasn't too big, and fits in okay. And yes, we would want it in English. :-) Incidentally, we'd love to have a Swedish translation of the OpenCD -- we are working on the second edition right now, and it will have a new installer that's easier to localize. Could we get in touch with you in a couple of months once it's getting closer to the planned release date in March?
Hi. Im Martin Östlund, also from Sweden :) You could make a note of my name and email, and contact me when localizing your installer to other languages, I'd be happy to help out in the swedish translation.
Cheers, Martin Östlund mo@microsaft.nu
<- Snip ->
Will Martin Project Lead -- The OpenCD Project _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion@fsfeurope.org https://mailman.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
On Mon, Dec 16, 2002 at 01:44:16PM -0500, Will Martin wrote:
We at the OpenCD did include some literature about open source/free software -- "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" for one, and "Free as in Freedom", along with several other essays. What you're proposing sounds rather more ambitious; sort of a biography-of-a-program, its beginnings, growth, and continuing development. I think it sounds interesting.
I know that you have literature on the OpenCD. But it is a bunch of programs and some literature on the side. What I'm thinking about is to make the documentation more central and use the programs to sort of illustrate the documentation. I think the collection of software you have is good. I'm not proposing a biography of a program but a biography of the free software movement made easy and a bunch of good free programs to illustrate it.
Well, speaking for the OpenCD, I think we could probably find space for such a thing, provided it wasn't too big, and fits in okay. And yes, we would want it in English. :-) Incidentally, we'd love to have a Swedish translation of the OpenCD -- we are working on the second edition right now, and it will have a new installer that's easier to localize. Could we get in touch with you in a couple of months once it's getting closer to the planned release date in March?
I do know you want it in English if you wanted it. But we will start in Swedish and hopefully hava an English version very soon after the Swedish one. The reason i posted in fsfeurope and to you and the Knoppix-poeple was that we suspected that you maybe had some thoughts in this derection or atleast have a good way to distribute it. Of course I'm also interested in if anybody else are doing the same thing. Then we could just translate it to swedish.
Well, Eric S. Raymond's "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" is pretty close to what you are proposing; it discusses the evolution of fetchmail.
I'm familiar with Eric S. Raymond's "The Cathedral and the Bazaar". But as I said above what I'm aiming for is the story of the free software movement as a hole illustrated with programs bundled with the story.
/Marcus
Marcus Rejås wrote:
I'm familiar with Eric S. Raymond's "The Cathedral and the Bazaar". But as I said above what I'm aiming for is the story of the free software movement as a hole illustrated with programs bundled with the story.
The book of Volker Grassmuck (in German) covers a similar topic. I've only read half of it yet, but it appears very interesting to me.
Volker Grassmuck, Freie Software. Geschichte, Dynamiken und gesellschaftliche Bezüge, Ver 1.0, September 2000
HTML: http://mikro.org/Events/OS/text/freie-sw.html PDF: http://mikro.org/Events/OS/text/freie-sw.pdf
Frank
On Mon, Dec 16, 2002 at 01:44:16PM -0500, Will Martin wrote:
Well, Eric S. Raymond's "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" is pretty close to what you are proposing; it discusses the evolution of fetchmail.
Raymond's paper tried to draw conclusions about the development model. In some sense he is trying more as you would do if you just explain the history of one program. On the other hand, he does not include the Free Software philosophy part necessary.