[DotGNU]third draft for FD press release

[TonStanco]

I think the press release is absolutely excellent. Like with free software 
development, free press release development does some amazing things. It is 
an intellectual activity too, after all :)

Norbert, 
if it is OK, let's leave it open for a little longer for any other comments, 
since we have so many time zones to hear from. Then we can send it to the 
community outlets. Do you want to do it? Do you have the emails addresses?

David, 
sorry to hear about your wife's ankle. Hope it heals quickly. Sounds like you 
are Mr. Mom for a little while to the kids. At least, you are back home, 
though. It would have been worse if you were still in France.


> Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 12:25:15 +0200
>  From: Norbert Bollow <address@hidden>
>  To: address@hidden
>  Subject: [DotGNU]third draft for FD press release
>  
>  This is my final version of this press release.  I'm not opposed
>  to releasing it now.  If you want to continue improving it, that
>  is fine with me too, as long as someone else will do the work. I 
>  don't have any more time for this. :-)
>  
>  Greetings, Norbert.
>  
>  
>  
>  PRELIMINARY VERSION - NOT AUTHORIZED FOR RELEASE
>  (The above line will eventually be changed to "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE")
>  
>  DotGNU:  .GNU TO FACE DOWN .NET
>  
>  FREE SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD MOBILIZE 
>  TO PREVENT EXTENSION OF MICROSOFT'S MONOPOLY TO THE INTERNET.
>  
>  
>  Washington DC, USA - July 11, 2001 - FreeDevelopers announced today
>  the DotGNU project, a Free Software alternative to Microsoft's .NET.
>  DotGNU has already been endorsed by the Free Software Foundation and
>  accepted as a part of the GNU project.
>  
>  The DotGNU Project (which has a website at http://dotgnu.org )
>  has been started by Free Software developers who are very
>  concerned about what would happen to e-commerce and the freedom
>  of the internet if Microsoft is successful with their plans for
>  a centralized authentication system.  Microsoft wants everyone's
>  personal information and credit card numbers to be stored in
>  their "Passport" system, from where it can be made available to
>  online merchants without any inconvenience to the end user.
>  However, such convenience can be also achieved without a central
>  database that contains everyone's personal information.
>  
>  David Sugar, CTO of FreeDevelopers said "the existing passport
>  system offers no technological advantage, and in fact, is a much
>  poorer technology than what can actually be offered, such as in
>  a distributed authentication and user data storage system."
>  Sugar, who is highly respected among Free Software developers as
>  the maintainer of Bayonne, the GNU telephony system, goes on to
>  say that Microsoft's passport system is "ethically and morally
>  wrong."  With its passport system, Microsoft is effectively saying,
>  "trust me - I will hold your wallet and whenever you need to buy
>  something, I will give it back to you."
>  
>  The developers behind the DotGNU project are not only concerned
>  about what Microsoft might do with the data intentionally.  The
>  governments of some countries are interested in limiting their
>  citizens' freedoms.  Can Microsoft prevent the secret service of
>  such a government from breaking into the servers of the "passport"
>  system and silently snooping on all ongoing e-commerce transactions?
>  Can Microsoft prevent a well-funded secret service from intercepting
>  confidential data with a so-called man-in-the-middle attack?
>  
>  Another risk is that when Microsoft controls a centralized
>  authentication system for all of the internet, the company can
>  use this monopoly to effectively force everyone to use software
>  that is controlled by Microsoft.  Norbert Bollow, a
>  Switzerland-based business coach, said "I contribute to the
>  DotGNU project because I want my clients to be free to run their
>  businesses in the way they want, because that is what gives them
>  personal satisfaction and also the profits they want.  Depending
>  on circumstances, the use of software components which cannot be
>  changed (because they are controlled by a Non-Free Software
>  company like Microsoft) can be anything from a minor annoyance
>  to something that really hinders your business success and
>  profits."
>  
>  Tony Stanco, founder of FreeDevelopers, calls DotGNU a "very
>  important strategic project for free software." He adds "It is
>  probably the battleground where we win or lose against Microsoft
>  in the next few years."
>  
>  Just like it is the goal of the GNU project, see http://www.gnu.org
>  to create a complete operating system that makes it completely
>  unnecessary to use a non-free operating system like e.g. Microsoft
>  Windows, it's the goal of the DotGNU project to be a complete
>  competitor to Microsoft's ".Net initiative" and "Hailstorm"
>  products.
>  
>  The DotGNU project will compete with Microsoft for end-users,
>  business customers and developers.  It is a huge project.  Barry
>  Fitzgerald, a Free Software developer who contributes to DotGNU,
>  said "It's natural to have doubts about the implications of this
>  project, since the scope of this project is to counter something
>  that Microsoft is doing.  I, too, had doubts upon first hearing
>  of the project.  However, DotGNU is not simply a Free Software
>  version of .NET -- DotGNU will be a suite of projects that are
>  designed to enhance the capabilities of the Free Software
>  infrastructure outright.  Each of these projects can have value
>  as part of DotGNU, or as stand-alone products.  If Microsoft is
>  making these tools, then someone will use them.  It's our
>  responsibility to counter that usage with a Free alternative.
>  Also, our responsibility is to create this infrastructure in a
>  way that is consistent with sensitivity to the user's privacy
>  and with the sensitivity of their data.  If there are problems
>  in the Microsoft architecture that users will implement, it is
>  our responsibility to produce Free alternatives that address and
>  ostensibly fix those problems."
>  
>  Enzo-Adrian Reyes, the Australian Free Software developer who has
>  started the DotGNU project, commented "DotGNU will be a complete
>  replacement for the .NET strategy - it will not be a Free Software
>  implementation of .NET. While .NET has some very sound ideas,
>  problems arise with its implementation, especially with the
>  Authentication/Authorization systems which are centralized to
>  Microsoft.  DotGNU will use a decentralized paradigm, no single
>  company, server or entity will control authorization.  Secondly
>  DotGNU  will emphasize security, it will use encryption wherever
>  possible to keep user data secure and hidden."
>  
>  Right now is an excellent opportunity for every programmer and
>  software developer who cares about matters of Freedom to get
>  involved right from the beginning in a truly important project.
>  Good starting points are to sign the Declaration of Software Freedom 
>  at http://freedevelopers.net/freedomdec/ and to subscribe to one
>  or more of the mailing lists.  There is a mailing list for general
>  discussions at http://dotgnu.org/mailman/listinfo/developers and
>  there are specialized mailing lists which focus on the overall
>  design of the system http://dotgnu.org/mailman/listinfo/arch and
>  on quickly creating an authentication system (the first version
>  will use browser plugins) that can compete with Microsoft's
>  Passport system http://dotgnu.org/mailman/listinfo/auth .
>  
>  
>  
>  About the relation of the DotGNU project to the GNU system:
>  
>  The DotGNU project has been endorsed by the Free Software
>  Foundation and accepted as a part of the GNU system.  Therefore,
>  to be quite precise, DotGNU is a GNU project that has been
>  initiated by FreeDevelopers and that continues to be supported
>  by FreeDevelopers.
>  
>  
>  About FreeDevelopers:
>  
>  FreeDevelopers ( which can be found on the internet at
>  http://freedevelopers.net ) is a self-regulatory organization of free
>  software developers from around the world.  It currently has over 900
>  developers from about 50 countries. FreeDevelopers is headquartered in
>  Washington DC, USA.  FreeDevelopers-India is located in Trivandrum, India.
>  
>  FreeDevelopers is a software development company, but it is very
>  different from traditional, "corporate" software companies:
>  FreeDevelopers has a "The Community is the Company" structure, and all
>  the software they develop is licensed under the GNU General Public
>  License (GNU GPL).  The GNU GPL provides the users of the programs
>  with many rights.  These rights include the freedom to modify the
>  program and the freedom to redistribute the program.  If a person is
>  not a programmer, they may choose to hire someone to make the changes
>  for them.  Computer programs where the users are given these freedom
>  rights are called Free Software. (For more details see
>  http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html#AboutFreeSoftware .)
>  So far much excellent Free Software has been developed by volunteers
>  working together informally over the internet, for example most of the
>  very successful GNU/Linux operating system has been developed in this
>  way.  The company FreeDevelopers has been started with the goal to
>  create a commercial structure that will allow Free Software developers
>  to get paid for the work they do.
>  
>  
>  About GNU:
>  
>  GNU is a Free Software Unix-like operating system.  Development of GNU
>  began in 1984.
>  
>  GNU/Linux is the integrated combination of the GNU operating system with
>  the kernel, Linux, written by Linus Torvalds in 1991.  The various
>  versions of GNU/Linux have an estimated 20 million users.
>  
>  Some people call the GNU/Linux system "Linux", but this misnomer leads
>  to confusion (people cannot tell whether you mean the whole system or
>  the kernel, one part), and spreads an inaccurate picture of how, when
>  and where the system was developed.  Making a consistent distinction
>  between GNU/Linux, the whole operating system, and Linux, the kernel, is
>  the best way to clear up the confusion.
>  
>  
>  About the Free Software Foundation:
>  
>  The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
>  computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute
>  computer programs.  The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as
>  in freedom) software---particularly the GNU operating system and its
>  GNU/Linux variants---and free documentation for free software.  The FSF
>  also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of
>  freedom in the use of software.  Their web site, located at
>  http://www.gnu.org, is an important source of information about
>  GNU/Linux. They are headquartered in Boston, MA, USA.
>  
>  
>  Media Contacts:
>  
>  USA:          Tony Stanco <address@hidden>
>                David Sugar <address@hidden>
>  India:        address@hidden
>                address@hidden
>  Switzerland:  address@hidden
>  Australia:    address@hidden
>