http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19065082
This is very interesting, good to see RMS on bbc. I thought "valve will initially support ubuntu" could have been rephrased as "ubuntu will initially support valve" as this sounds to me like a chove on ubuntu's part too....
I am not a gamer though - any thoughts?
Best
Anna
On Tuesday 31 Jul 2012 20:22:16 Anna Morris wrote:
I am not a gamer though - any thoughts?
My feeling is the same as Richard's - it's a mixed blessing, and while it will probably bring more users to GNU/Linux, they'll come for the wrong reasons, and be less likely to use and support Free Software games.
Canonical is making Ubuntu more proprietary year by year. As they make little effort to educate users about Freedom, yet are increasingly pushing proprietary software over Free software, it could be merely a matter of time before the average Ubuntu user is as unaware of freedom as the average Windows user.
Best,
Sam.
Re "any thoughts"
Sam Tuke wrote:
it could be merely a matter of time before the
average Ubuntu user is as unaware of freedom as the average Windows user.
Perhaps this is a bit speculative and might be less than charitable to the "average user". If someone is never exposed to the benefits of free, or "semi-free", software they will just grumble in ignorance.
Roy.
On 1 August 2012 13:27, Sam Tuke samtuke@fsfe.org wrote:
On Tuesday 31 Jul 2012 20:22:16 Anna Morris wrote:
I am not a gamer though - any thoughts?
My feeling is the same as Richard's - it's a mixed blessing, and while it will probably bring more users to GNU/Linux, they'll come for the wrong reasons, and be less likely to use and support Free Software games.
Canonical is making Ubuntu more proprietary year by year. As they make little effort to educate users about Freedom, yet are increasingly pushing proprietary software over Free software, it could be merely a matter of time before the average Ubuntu user is as unaware of freedom as the average Windows user.
Best,
Sam.
Sam Tuke British Team Coordinator Free Software Foundation Europe IM : samtuke@jabber.fsfe.org Latest UK Free Software news: uk.fsfe.org Is freedom important to you? Join the fellowship.fsfe.org _______________________________________________ Fsuk-manchester mailing list Fsuk-manchester@nongnu.org https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsuk-manchester
The difficult step is going from "Programs A B and C have shafted me" to "those developers have no right to keep us users helpless." Most people don't make this leap on their own -- they need to hear it from us.
That's why spreading this idea is our most important task. Leading more people to use free software cannot substitute for showing them the idea.
-- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org www.gnu.org Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software. Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call
You have it right.
If all of you could post comments in the articles about this that miss the point, to set it right (and point out that the system that might benefit is not "Linux" and that our cause is not "open source" but "free software"), that will help a lot.
-- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org www.gnu.org Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software. Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call
Can you tell me a way to send a response to the BBC about this article?
What is a "chove"?
-- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org www.gnu.org Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software. Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call