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On 29 Apr 2012 00:48, "bad apple" <ifindthatinteresting@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On 28/04/12 17:52, paul sutton wrote:
> > Sometimes we have to put freedom to one side
>
> With the greatest respect to all of you, and the best wishes for your
> future LUG endeavours, I think this is where we shall have to part
> philosophical ways. I really do not consider myself to be a
> Stallman-esque fanatic by any stretch of the imagination: as a sysadmin
> I by necessity have to be pragmatic in my work. Well over 50% of my
> workload involves strictly proprietary systems (Windows, AIX, HP-UX,
> IOS, etc) and I long ago learnt to stop patronising friends and
> relatives with lectures on free-as-in-freedom whilst fixing their
> computers. Each to their own of course.
>
> But I think there is a strange dichotomy here. Whilst I can tolerate,
> and in some cases even quite like, decidedly non-free software (Windows
> server 2008r2 is excellent, SGI's IRIX is fantastic) I personally
> struggle to understand the willingness of some otherwise die-hard open
> source/free software proponents to sacrifice another, equally important
> aspect of their digital-age freedom in what seems to me an almost
> Faustian gamble. Sure, as modern cloudy, web-based software solutions
> google+, linkedin, facebook, twitter and a plethora of other social
> network platforms all run fine in our open-source web browsers on our
> open-source operating systems, right? Why not use them?
>
> Well, forgive me if you disagree, and you are of course more than
> welcome to, but to answer my own question: because these 'solutions'
> pose a considerably greater threat to their s/users/commodities/g
> freedom in the broader, and I would argue, more important sense than
> merely using a closed source software ecosystem ever could.
>
> To sum up: I have (perhaps mistakenly) conceived of this proposition as
> a gambit. Is it worth sacrificing privacy and independence to use
> closed, corporate social networking platforms to spur the adoption of
> linux? Or is it better to eschew the use of these platforms, retain at
> least a semblance of one's control of one's own data and risk being
> unable to evangelize linux and open source/free software because of the
> lack of the exposure? Or as it has been put more bluntly:
>
> > Sometimes we have to put freedom to one side
>
> No. We do not ever have to put freedom to one side. It is a choice that
> any of us can make individually, hopefully in full possession of the
> facts and consequences thus entailed, but we certainly do not have to.
> It is certainly not one I will ever take. This is just my personal
> opinion. I was very surprised to see this issue even come up, and even
> more surprised to see the seemingly universal positive response (users
> immediately signing up, etc). This of course probably shows that I am
> simply out of touch and stupid, and I don't for a moment think that any
> of you shouldn't do precisely what you want and completely ignore me.
>
> But the entire reason that I migrated inexorably from the DOS/CPM/VMS
> environments of my youth to the open systems like BSD and linux was
> because I valued my own independence and skills, and wanted to be free
> to tinker, recompile, host my own webservers, mailing lists, IRC
> channels, mail servers... I'm aware I sound a bit like a rabid American
> pro-gun supporter or something when I say you'll prise my privacy from
> my cold dead hands, but that's one of the chief draws for me: I can
> always do things myself, rather than having to sell my soul to giant
> corporate monstrosities like facebook or google. Do you really want to
> betray one of the foundation principles of the open source/free software
> 'revolution' just because it might make it a bit easier to recruit a few
> more people?
>
> Apologies for a somewhat longer than intended email.
>
> Regards,
>
> Mat
Hear hear!
I have Diaspora and Identica accounts. Anyone wants in, I'm here to help.
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