[ubuntu-uk] Battle of the Operating Systems

[ajb35 at kent.ac.uk]

----- Original Message -----
From: Alan Pope <alan at popey.com>
Date: Thursday, January 25, 2007 12:03 pm
Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] Battle of the Operating Systems
To: British Ubuntu Talk <ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com>

> On Wed, Jan 24, 2007 at 05:49:56PM +0000, London School of 
> Puppetry wrote:
> > Hi there, I was talking to friends about Linux (Ubuntu) said 
> it was free-
> > then they all look puzzled because they have never paid for it 
> ...it comes
> > free with a new computer.....so then what is my answer?  
> Caroline> 
> 
> "Free" has two meanings. "Free of monetary cost" or "free and in 
> 'beer'", and "Freedom of use" or "free as in 'speech'".
> 
> Windows is neither.
> 
> It is not free of monetary cost, small companies pay around $100 
> for their Windows license they bundle with the computer you buy, 
> larger companies such as Dell pay around $50 for the Windows license.
> 
> You pay nothing for Ubuntu - it is free of monetary cost. 
> 
> The freedoms that the GPL and other licenses give you allows you 
> to use the software, copy the software, modify the software and 
> make 
> derivative versions of the software. You can't do any of that 
> with Windows.
> 
> They also have further issues with Windows in that it controls 
> the way in which they can use their computer. These limitations 
> may 
> restrict what media they are able to play, and how they can 
> manage their media (photos, movies, music etc).
> 
> Personally when I talk to people about Linux/Ubunu I stay clear 
> of the Free/Libre argument initially because it can become a 
> very long 
> complex and political discussion. It is one that needs to be 
> had, but you can easily get dragged into length semantic 
> arguments that 
> do not help your cause.
> 
> Instead I often use the simple "I use Linux because it does what 
> I want", or "I dont use Windows because it doesn't do what I want".
> 
> I blogged about this a while ago. 
> http://popey.com/Helping_Windows_Users which you may find 
> interesting/useful.
> Cheers,
> Al.
> 
> -- 
> ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
> https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
> 

I guess this is the follow up from the "Battle of the Operating System", 2 vista reviews, 1 open sauce :-p and 1 OSX.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6309425.stm

Regards,
    Adam.
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