Ubuntu: Popular Freedom
Today’s video-Blog entry is about Freedom and Popularity:
This is the quote from the article’s comment mentioned:
If the price of popularity is freedom, as Ubuntu users have demonstrated a few times, I don’t want it. – Magice
2009-07-05 at 17:40
Agree! You got it right!
2009-07-05 at 19:43
Well-said. You’ve echoed my thoughts on the whole “ideology vs merit” argument precisely. I switched to Linux years ago because Windows had failed me. The GPL became the most important reason to stay. In my experience, the people who like to dismiss the movement as being the pursuit of freetards, zealots, fundamentalists are only really to be found online. In the real world, people are far more receptive to the concept of freedom for its own sake. When I tell people of Linux and free software, I explain the concept like this: being open means the best software rises to the top of the pack as anybody can study the code and improve upon it whereas poor quality software is shunned; being free means what has already been achieved will always be available to whoever needs it. I tell them the meaning of Ubuntu, too: I am who I am because of who we all are. No piece of technology we have available today was the sole work of the occasional genius, rather it is the result of collaboration and building on past achievements. When the penny drops, you begin to see this is exactly how human beings have always acted. We take from others, and we pass the knowledge on. Free software, then, is at its very core the logical continuation of our normal behaviour. It requires neither money nor corporate embellishment in order to thrive, only the zeal to create knowledge and share. It is this that makes free software not only profound, but unstoppable.
2009-07-05 at 19:46
Oh and by the way, nice hat.
2009-07-05 at 21:43
Why thank you, it was a bit hot though with all those lights and being 27°C outside.
2009-07-05 at 19:48
Part of an email i sent to the FSF a while ago: “A general criticism i have about the FSF: It seems to function as a “face” of the free software movement rather than being more open towards getting individuals involved with actions that anybody (non-tech folks especially) can do. Any groups like the FSF should try to organize the community and take advantage of it’s supporters to do things (not just fund). Of course, the FSF is basically run entirely by supporters, but it still feels very exclusive. An example of the kinds of things i’m talking about is the demand OpenID site. It might not have a big direct impact, but it’s an easy action that anybody can do and get’s supporters involved.”