Re-imagining

Sat Apr 13 06:24:12 UTC 2013

One great place to find out what acronyms mean is the Acronym Finder
search engine.  For example:

FLOSS http://www.acronymfinder.com/FLOSS.html
IRC http://www.acronymfinder.com/IRC.html

--Bob.

Bob Jonkman <bjonkman at sobac.com>         http://sobac.com/sobac/
SOBAC Microcomputer Services              Phone: +1-519-669-0388
6 James Street, Elmira ON Canada  N3B 1L5  Cell: +1-519-635-9413
Software   ---   Office & Business Automation   ---   Consulting 

On 13-04-12 09:28 AM, Ralph Janke wrote:
> IRC means Internet Relay Chat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat
>
> It it a form of live interactive Internet text messaging.
>
> FLOSS means Free/Libre and Open Source Software http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software
> The libre is included in order to distinguish the requirement of liberty in contrast to "free beer".
>
> You can have closed source software that you can use without paying ("free beer"), but it would not give
> the users the liberty (freedom defined in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Free_Software_Definition),
> because Freedom 1 and 3 in the definition require access to the source code.
>
> Ralph
> On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 06:03:48AM -0400, David M. Pelly wrote:
>> What does "IRC"  and "FLOSS"  mean in the posts below?
>>
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:17:47 -0400
>>> From: txwikinger at ubuntu.com
>>> To: ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com
>>> Subject: Re: Re-imagining
>>>
>>> On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 06:54:15AM -0700, Randall Ross wrote:
>>>> Mark Paskal wrote:
>>>>> Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2013 19:19:24 -0600
>>>>> From: Mark Paskal <markpaskal at gmail.com>
>>>>> To: The Canadian Ubuntu Users Community <ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com>
>>>>> Subject: Re: Re-imagining
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I really feel that the national loco is important as the only obvious place
>>>>> (that I know of, please someone correct me if I'm wrong.) for Canadian
>>>>> users to get support. 
>>>> That's a misconception. Mailing lists are a terrible support channel and
>>>> we'd be better served if there were a "no support questions here" rule.
>>>> IRC is marginally better, but not by much, and is unusable by novice
>>>> Ubuntu people.
>>>>
>>>> http://askubuntu.com is the official place to get support for the Ubuntu
>>>> project. The legacy (but still useful) place to get support is
>>>> https://answers.launchpad.net
>>>>
>>> AskUbuntu is not really the place for support. The moderators there are very
>>> fast in closing questions and new users are often disappointed and turn away.
>>>
>>> AskUbuntu is a collection point of good re-usable questions and answers, which
>>> can be helpful in some circumstances, but that does not amount to good support.
>>>
>>> Support in the Ubuntu community comes on numerous places. There are mailing lists
>>> specially dedicated for support, similar there are IRC channels solely for that 
>>> purpose. There are fora for it. All those are  available in lots of languages
>>> (which Ask Ubuntu is not -- it is solely English, -- there is a shapado section
>>> for Ubuntu that is multi-lingual, but it is not very frequented).
>>>
>>> Support can be given in lots of different forms. Every place has its purpose and
>>> its advantages and disadvantages. And sometimes it is difficult. Not every LoCo
>>> has the critical mass to do all of it. However, fortunately for us, if the questions
>>> are merely about Canada specific issues, it is not overwhelming. For general 
>>> questions there are enough other places that are contributed to world-wide in English.
>>>
>>> I can daily questions through the contact form from the Kubuntu Germany LoCo, 
>>> fortunately, there are places I can send people to get answers. The important point
>>> is often not to be able to answer everything, but to send people to good places. 
>>>>> I think advocating should be left to the city groups if they exist and are
>>>>> interested. Here in Calgary the only interaction I have ever had with
>>>>> another Ubuntu user was making him wonder 'Why is he staring?' as I
>>>>> eyeballed the sticker on his laptop bag in passing. (OMG I'M NOT THE ONLY
>>>>> ONE!!) This area has two million people and I've seen the one guy.
>>>> Given Ubuntu market share estimates, conservatively there are at least
>>>> 20,000 people who enjoy Ubuntu in Calgary. That's enough for a *very*
>>>> large group.
>>> I have no clue were you make yup these numbers from. 1) 2% Linux users  is
>>> just an estimate... nobody really knows. And the percentage is very likely
>>> higher in Servers than in Desktops. 2) There are places that have far 
>>> higher numbers, just look at South America, so there are also places with 
>>> a far lower number. Making up such number and calling them conservatively
>>> is not very credible.
>>>>>     Even if ubuntu-stickered-laptop-guy and I were to start a local group I
>>>>> have to question the usefulness of spending time on advocacy given that
>>>>> I'll be spending just as much time helping 90% of users I do manage to
>>>> I will close with a challenge for all reading this: If you are the
>>>> "Sticker guy" or the "Sticker gal" in your city/town, and you want to
>>>> see people freed from monopolists (with bank accounts the size of a
>>>> national treasury) in your lifetime, start an Ubuntu group where you
>>>> live. It's our best chance. The code has been written. We need to get it
>>>> to our friends and neighbours... now.
>>>>
>>> Well, recently,  Ubuntu is acting more and more monopolistic, too. Maybe
>>> the *buntu community needs to grow a spine before advocacy in this direction
>>> can be made again with a good conscience. 
>>>
>>> Freeing people is not achieved by selling them used cars that do not fulfill
>>> their needs. Freeing people is achieved by teaching them how to get the
>>> best FLOSS product for their particular purpose. Sure yiou can have
>>> them switch from Microsoft to some pseudo-freedom, but they will not
>>> stay when they figure out what the real motivation was. And then, all
>>> of the FLOSS community has been given a bad name.
>>>
>>> Life is far more complicated than just some sound bites from a marketing
>>> manual. Delivering what was perceived to be promised is the only way
>>> to earn trust.
>>>
>>> Ralph
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> -- 
>>>> ubuntu-ca mailing list
>>>> ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com
>>>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-ca
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> ubuntu-ca mailing list
>>> ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com
>>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-ca
>>  		 	   		  
>> -- 
>> ubuntu-ca mailing list
>> ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com
>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-ca
>

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