On 09/29/2010 05:17 AM, Michael Dorrington wrote:
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Frederic Muller - SFI wrote:
Hi!
Just finished watching and I find the Steven Fry video much better for an event like SFD http://www.gnu.org/fry/ . It goes on explaining in layman's terms what is Free Software and that's really what we want: getting the word out to educate and encourage people towards their own Software Freedom.
The Stephen Fry video is good but I'm not sure about his real commitment to Free Software. Not long after he made that video he posted an article about how great the iPad was, <http://www.stephenfry.com/2010/01/28/ipad-about/>. And if you follow the link to his page from the GNU site,<http://www.gnu.org/fry/>, you are presented with an advert for his new book via "iPad APP" and "iPhone APP". So not so much Freedom Fry but more like iFry.
Besides I find Richard's intro is a bit like SFD is his event, and very much pushing his own ideas... while I don't mind so much, it would have been nice of him to acknowledge that others also works towards Software Freedom, and that the FSF is not the sole owner of the term.
I think Richard's video is good, although maybe a bit heavy for a newcomer but it needs explaining to them at some point. I agree with Quiliro Ordóñez that I don't think Richard makes out that SFD is his event. And its hard to overstate how much Richard has done for Software Freedom,<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman>. Its a shame that the FSF didn't come up with Software Freedom Day but I am truly thankful to those that did.
I'd like to take this opportunity to send a little hello to any FreeBSD users out there and hope they don't feel "left alone". :)
And the OpenBSD users, NetBSD users, etc. But how strong is FreeBSD's commitment to Software Freedom? The FreeBSD kernel contains non-free software, see the elements discovered by Debian (Ben Hutchings) as part of Debian GNU/kFreeBSD project:
kfreebsd-8: "Includes binary-only and obfuscated C code" <http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=594940>
Note, there are also non-free elements in the Linux kernel <http://kernel.org/> (which is why there is <http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/selibre/linux-libre/> and <http://wiki.debian.org/KernelFirmwareLicensing>)
Cheers, Mike. Hi!
I agree with all your points, but still find Richard's video 'not very tailor made' to SFD. I'll prevent from quoting him but there is no acknowledgement of the people organizing SFD like you and me. Richard and SFI did in fact touch about the Steven Fry video and yes it is sad that he is now pushing something that is the opposite of what we advocate. In terms of content however Steven's message is a lot more in line with the way we want to communicate and our target audience. For what it's worth, Mark Shuttleworth also did a video this year for SFD in China and the message is about SFD and China. He talked about people celebrating and that's a good thing (I don't have any youtube link, one can see the video here though http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/BT-yVysfF1M/ ). I think a lot of team tend to forget SFD is about talking to people who don't know about Free Software, not a celebration by 'already convinced' to an 'already convinced' crowd. Our intent is to fight public ignorance. So we're not pushing GNU/Linux for everyone (try this, we'll tell you later why it's important), nor are we saying proprietary software should disappear. We're trying to explain what is Software Freedom and why it matters. People can make their own conclusion and then ask us what are there options. We're also very flexible on teams' interpretation of what should be done for that day. I hope this put my comment in perspective and that we can open the door to any community who cares about Software Freedom. Fred