RMS, Free software and the Ubuntu CDs

[Stegozor]

Derek Broughton wrote:


Sorry for this off-topic post and my poor English, but the topic seemed 
pretty interesting to me.

>> but personally I totally agree with RMS: 100% or nothing.
> 
> I'm afraid he's wrong on a few grounds.
> 
> First, it's a completely American concept that if you don't value your
> freedom, you'll lose it.  Freedom comes in degrees, and the vast majority
> of the world's population has precisely as much freedom as they feel they
> need.

Interesting idea, but I beg to differ. Firstly, this concept is not 
American, it is born in ancient Athens and progressed a lot since. In my 
view, the vast majority of the world does not have as much freedom as 
they feel they need; they are just never asked about how much freedom 
they would like to have but to shut up. Also, freedom is something one 
has to _learn_ how to manage. I mean, unless you clearly understand that 
the freedom of someone else has the same value than yours, it often ends 
in big trouble. There is definitely need for some kind of collective 
progress to change the way we think. Einstein had supposedly said once: 
"It's easier to break an atom than to change the wrong opinions of people".

As for software, many people around me keep their (often cracked) 
Windows because it's easier to do so. And the more there are easy to use 
GNU/Linux distros out there, the more this laziness becomes hard to 
understand, IMHO.

In my case, I first began with Netscape/Mozilla, OpenOffice.org and 
other open source software under Windows, and then switched to Linux 
nearly two weeks ago primarily because I like the "philosophy" of free 
software. First days are a bit difficult, but I hope that with time, 
things will get better.

Finally some fun: the vrms (Virtual Richard Matthew Stallman) tells the 
following:

stegozor at elrascle-desktop:~$ vrms
           Non-free packages installed on elrascle-desktop

hsfmodem                  Conexant HSF softmodem driver
lha                       lzh archiver
   Reason: No modifications allowed, non-network distributions problematic
linux-386                 Complete Linux kernel on 386.
linux-restricted-modules- Non-free Linux 2.6.15 modules on 386
linux-restricted-modules- Non-free Linux 2.6.15 modules on 386
linux-restricted-modules- Restricted Linux modules on 386.
linux-restricted-modules- Non-free Linux 2.6.15 modules helper script
ttf-gentium               Gentium TrueType font

   8 non-free packages, 0.5% of 1676 installed packages.

Dunno why but it missed the flash player. Anyway, even if it could be 
better, I like my score :)