Conversation:
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Actually on this note: "However, if I am visiting somewhere and the machines available nearby happen to contain non-free software, through no doing of mine, I don't refuse to touch them. I will use them briefly for tasks such as browsing. This limited usage doesn't give my assent to the software's license, or make me responsible its being present in the computer, or…
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I would go so far as to say there are many people whom are in the free software movement for the same reason many others join religions, for instance: they want to feel they follow a system of morality that makes them superior to others. They are not and never will be. We are all humans and none of us are better than any other.
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@bob There are a LOT of people who talk down to people who use proprietary software. Many people do not have a choice in this, but people do not care. For instance, they do not control the devices their employers provide them with, or the workstations at their place of employment. Yet in spite of this, it is expected that they will somehow rise up against these…
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@bob I do not think any less of people that use proprietary software. Most of them do not realize the choice they have available, or are made to believe by corporate propoganda that Linux is some hard, unfathomable thing that requires deep technical knowledge and CLIs. This is a false belief, and most people are more than happy to use free software alternatives t…
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@gameragodzilla @bob Ideologues don't care about converting the unfaithful, in the end, they care about posturing to their social groups. I'll stop myself a bit here because I'm not really in disagreement with Bob's own reasons for being involved in the movement and I feel a bit like I'm preaching to the choir, but I think he's probably seen the kinds of FOSS "advoc…
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@gameragodzilla @bob I get very frustrated by the people who join those kinds of movement just for social credit because, as we've seen, they almost always do a lot of damage that the people who actually care about those causes are left with trying to repair.
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@gameragodzilla @bob Sad but very true. The human element. We so often seek shortcuts, and easy exits.
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@bob @gameragodzilla It also helps to speak someone's language. Allow to expand with an example, to illustrate what I mean by that. When I used to work for one retailer, they used to use the MS Office suite for stuff. I'm not going to deny it's nice. It is, and I still occasionally use it for documents I get sent, or when LibreOffice decides to screw the pooch…
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@gameragodzilla @bob So how do you get them to switch to free software then? Well, that's kind of simple really. You find an alternative that does the same things (at the time this was OpenOffice, it's since been split off into LibreOffice), but is *free*, as in beer. It suddenly became very easy to get the company to change over to using OpenOffice when I ex…
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@gameragodzilla @bob Yeah, hi.
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@gameragodzilla @bob To this day, I am pretty sure that retailer still uses OpenOffice.
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@gameragodzilla @bob In this case I showed the CFO through OpenOffice and he could see it was just as easy to use and he could use it just fine himself, and it was *free*, so it was a way to look good to the board of directors for him. Big "cost savings" and all that.
Humans will be humans.
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@gameragodzilla @bob Digital Restrictions Management sure is great. I use what's convenient for me at the time, but I find open, free software usually more convenient. We should expect others to do the same - they'll do what's easiest for them. So to promote free software, we should make it as easy as possible for people to use. That software has to be convenie…
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@bob @gameragodzilla I find if you put good-quality free software in front of people, and allow them to explore it themselves, with guidance as they need, they'll convert themselves really. That's my experience anyways. The "good quality" part is important though. It's not "good quality" just because it's free software, and there is a lot of free software I wou…
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@gameragodzilla @bob Look up LibreOffice if you do, it's the more modern fork/progression/whatever.
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@bob @gameragodzilla Yeah I'm constantly surprised how many people don't realize Android is just Google's own Android distro. (Well, its "separate" from Google, but not really.)
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@gameragodzilla @bob er, their own Linux distro
I blame the pain meds.
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@cow2001 @gameragodzilla @bob Incidentally electronics diagramming software is something where the proprietary versions just blow anything FOSS have out of the water so completely it probably reaches orbit.
maiyannah
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