Re: [Fsuk-manchester] the non-free neighbour asking for help dilemma

[Lucy]

On 15/05/2008, Dave Crossland <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>  The only way to get someone interested in the moral issues of software
> is to discuss them, patiently.

Discussion only works if the other person is willing to listen,
sometimes you have to work and to make compromises in order to get
them to listen. Which is why I think Tim made the right choice with
his brother, even though it involved installing proprietary software
and from Tim's subsequent emails it seems he has made a positive
difference.

>  The technical advantages are a different, discrete issue, and there
>  are disadvantages too.

Yes, of course the technical advantages are different, I'm not arguing
otherwise, I'm just saying that you can sometimes use those advantages
to get someone using free software, at which point they may be more
interested in the moral issues.

>  If they start using and liking free software and rejecting proprietary
>  software cannot happen unless they understand the moral issues:

If I read that sentence correctly, that's like saying that I can't use
free software because I found out about the technical advantages
before the moral issues!

There's more than one way to teach someone about the moral issues of
free software and it doesn't necessarily involve a lecture before
letting them near a computer.

>  installing gNewSense is a good first step, since the gNS community
>  takes care of not starting out with any proprietary software, but
>  unless they understand the moral issues, they will eventually be
>  invited to install some proprietary software, and not reject
>  proprietary software on their other computers.

I expect that everyone on this mailing list uses some kind of
proprietary software regardless of whether they understand the moral
issues and they use it because realistically they have no choice.

gNewSense is probably not a good introduction to free software for
most people, because most people will require some proprietary
software for their computer to work properly. Introducing them to an
OS that they can't really use is not a good introduction IME!