[ubuntu-uk] Free lunch?

[paul sutton]

On 25/03/12 11:47, Grant Phillips-Sewell wrote:
> On Sun, 25 Mar 2012 11:06:04 +0100
> alan c wrote:
>
>> On 24/03/12 11:08, Chris Penston wrote:
>>
>> [snip of really good stuff]
>>
>>>  People tend to be impressed by the novelty 
>>> that they have a choice.  Almost always, the reaction is
>>> astonishment that something can be so good without costing anything
>>> 'so there must be a catch'.
>> Yes I find that a lot, also. It is difficult explaining that although
>> there is no such thing as a free lunch (probably true), that there
>> *is* Libre software.
> I think I've posted on here before with my 2 principle examples. In no
> particular order:
>
> 1) "Doing in their spare time? It can't be any good then":
> Just because somebody does it for free (possibly in their spare
> time) does not mean that it is of a lower quality than paid-for
> software. Indeed many people who contribute to Free Software projects
> maintain paid-for jobs doing the same thing - many Free Software
> programmers have paid-for jobs writing software; many Free Software
> designers have paid-for jobs doing design work. Just because they also
> do so for free does not mean their Free work is of a lesser quality. A
> professional footballer playing a charity match won't play any worse
> because they're not getting paid for it.
>
> 2) "But they're highly-paid professionals. The average Jo(e) couldn't
> do that".
> Yes they can. St. John's Ambulance. Average people putting their
> knowledge and skills to use helping their community.

How about volunteer coaches, 
people at sports clubs,  volunteer web masters,  
people who perhaps volunteer in a child protection role,   you expect
them to do their job  including ensuring others are doing their job
properly,  paid or unpaid if you are a club child welfare officer you
have a great deal of responsibility.   this can really clash with
employment,  

>
> Grant.

Yeah I like the 2nd analogy,  However it seems rather worrying that
people who think that doing something unpaid means they are not doing a
good job, in fact this could be seen as highly offensive and insulting.  

We find errors in Windows., hear about bugs,  get viruses and just carry
on and seem to put up with it,  despite paying for the software (ok the
cost is hidden in a new computer) and yet when we try free software we
brand it poor if it does not live up to what we expect,  maybe we still
expect too much.

Is this free software must be bad because its free attitude. world wide
does it vary by country,  it seems other countries are more willing to
try, are more open minded,   maybe we need to do some research in to
where this issue crops up and then see if we can solve it,  by learning
from where it is doing well.,

It seems countries such as Africa embrace free software,  I think i read
that Brazil does because it wants its financial assets to say in Brazil
rather than going in to the pockets of executives in the USA,  so people
have different reasons,   they use it because it works not because it's
free,  it works because they are open minded,  and willing to try new
things willing to learn new things,  something that some countries find
hard either way.



Paul

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