Free Software for m$

[der.hans]

Am 04. Aug, 2002 schwätzte Richard L. Proctor so:

> Screw M$ and their 6.0 EULA
>
> I say NO freebies for M$

While I don't completely disagree with the sentiment ( there's a reason I
won't admit to knowing their products :), I think bridge software is
important.

Through bridge software we can get people to try Free Software. We can talk
to them about the importance of the 4 freedoms. We can get them to see
better functionality.

Some people will stay on the commercial OSen ( I think Mac has a chance of
playing a much larger role there ), but if we get them running some Free
Software apps I still see that a positive movement.

If we get 20% of the county to use OpenOffice, then we can push for free,
open document formats.

If we can get 20% of the county to use Mozilla as well we can reduce the
amount of virus emails we receive.

If we can get 20% of the county to use Free Software apps we can have a good
leverage to break the monopoly strangle-hold on the industry.

With that, we can convince people to take the EULAs into consideration and
break free of m$.

BTW, the plan, as I see it, is also to support Free Software on other OSen,
e.g. MacOS, but I'm pushing for us to start with one brand and do that well
before expanding. Maybe we should even limit that to just a couple of their
OSen.

If no one wants to do this, then we drop it. We need to decide in the next
couple of days as the initial press announcement for InstallFest2 should be
going out this week.

Finally: in the end I believe in freedom. If people want to toss theirs out
the window, that's up to them. As long as it doesn't reduce my freedom, that
is! If 90% of the planet is using some proprietary format that requires I
pay a tax to the vendor of that format they have infringed upon my freedom.
It's not the money, it's the freedom to choose which products I use.

ciao,

der.hans
-- 
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#  I've got a photographic memory,
#  but I'm lousy photographer. - der.hans