Objective of IFSO Re: [Fsfe-ie] stuff from the past week [adelaney at cs.may.ie]

[Justin Mason]

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Philip Reynolds writes:
>Ciaran O'Riordan <ciaran at member.fsf.org> 33 lines of wisdom included:
>> People can disagree with the judges (like I do re:GFDL), but the
>> judges give a good default to fall back on in case of disagreements.
>> Like at the last meeting, there was a multi-way disagreement over what
>> we should demand from e-voting software, I argued against demanding
>> fully Free Software, but after 10 minutes, we agreed that since we
>> were the Free Software movement, we would by default demand fully Free
>> Software.  My opinion got thrown out, and we got on with other work.
>> Brilliant!
>>=20
>> I hope there aren't people that will not help us block software
>> patents or get Free Software into schools just because we don't use
>> their terminology.  The usefulness of this type of person is
>> questionable anyway.  The goal isn't to make everyone happy all the
>> time, it's to give computer users the freedoms they deserve.
>
>I've been quiet on the list, but I'll voice my opinion, considering
>most people who have voiced theres seem to be strongly in favour of
>"Free Software" as opposed to "Open Source software". The latter is
>my personal preference.
>
>I am currently developing open source software (for both free and
>non-free usage, that's money folks, not speech) and I don't accept
>the argument that software can be produced and released as free
>software, while still allowing the company to make money.  Depending
>on the market, this can be true in many circumstances, but certainly
>not in all.
>
>At the same time, as an advocate, user and developer of free
>software I am perfectly happy to see this list move towards free
>software instead of open source software. My opinion is small, as
>time is very very limited to me at the moment. However, I thought
>you might appreciate comments from someone who is coming from the
>other side of the fence, an "open source" advocate rather than a
>"free software" advocate.

Basically, this is my issue.  I'm in the same boat.

I fully support the FSF and free software -- but I (personally)
write "open source" software most of the time.

I would gladly support a free software group in Ireland, but
IMO the population is such that a more inclusive viewpoint would
gain more members, and be more representative.

>I think Ciaran has raised some good points, as many problems as I
>have with the GPL and FSF, their basic principles are good and
>certainly better than many many other alternatives.

agreed.

>Btw, I completely agree that Free software offers much better
>alternatives for schools and educational insitutions in most cases.

?? surely as long as they don't plan to use mozilla/firebird or
similar open-source-licensed software ;)

BTW I'm nitpicking.  It's by no means a show-stopper for me.

- --j.
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