Re: Practicality of GNU project and libre movement (Sagar Acharya : 2)

[Jim Garrett]

Hi Yasu!

I would love to help and I'm sure others would too.  FSF has a Discord
instance but it's reservered for FSF members.

Would a wiki page or an online collaboratively-edited document make
sense?  I'm sure we could find a server to host this.

Also, there are already some resources available on the FSF web site:
https://www.fsf.org/resources, see "Resources for promoting free
software".

I would want to learn more about this coöp in order to tailor the
message:  What unites their community?  How did it start?  What sort of
services do they offer their clients?  What sort of services would they
like to offer in the future?  What is their culture, what are their
dreams?

-Jim Garrett


On Sat, 25 Jul 2020 09:00:29 +0900
Yasuaki Kudo <yasu@yasuaki.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I think this thread definitely explores many good points - I am new
> here but is there any structured discussion system for Free Software
> movement?   For example, this site runs a discussion software called
> "Discourse" https://community.coops.tech/
> 
> I have been asked by a contact at a large worker cooperative with
> over 10,000 members to provide some 'talking points memo' so that he
> can promote free software internally.
> 
> They are facing the situation where they will become more and more
> invested in Microsoft, Google, Zoom, etc or potentially switch to
> Free Software ecosystem.
> 
> Cheers,
> Yasu 
> 
> 
> 
> > On Jul 25, 2020, at 05:39, Miles Fidelman
> > <mfidelman@meetinghouse.net> wrote:
> > 
> > On 7/24/20 3:14 PM, Roberto Beltran via libreplanet-discuss wrote:
> >   
> >>>> Most people on here already know how bad things are, but I don't
> >>>> think it's black or white win or lose.  
> >>> Do we really know how bad things are? Is there a report somewhere
> >>> showing, for example adoption in free software, copyleft license
> >>> and dependency in proprietary software / noncopyleft software in
> >>> numbers and how it has evolved over the time?
> >>> 
> >>> On a side note, do we have success criteria (over achievable
> >>> stages, not just disappearance of proprietary software from the
> >>> world) that we can use to compare and good metrics to measure the
> >>> progress of the movement? 
> > Funny thing, but...
> > 
> > - Pretty much every funded R&D project that I've been associated
> > with, has contractual clauses requiring software to be released as
> > either open source or to the public domain - the leading edge
> > remains open source
> > 
> > - Pretty much every ISP, Hosting, and Cloud provider relies heavily
> > on FOSS software - with the bigger ones both funding critical
> > projects, and releasing a lot of their infrastructure code as FOSS
> > (Apache & Open Stack come to mind, Lyft's Clutch infrastructure
> > management platform is looking particularly interesting)
> > 
> > - The vast majority of the world's web sites run on Apache, on
> > Linux or BSD - and a huge number run on WordPress (all FOSS)
> > 
> > - Savvy IT directors prefer open source software to proprietary
> > software - not for cost reasons (maintaining software is costly,
> > whether you pay a vendor to do it or hire people) - but because
> > it's more flexible, and avoids vendor lock in (less-savvy IT
> > directors use FOSS because they think it's cheaper) - by the way,
> > that includes some rather large organizations, like large pieces of
> > the US Marine Corps
> > 
> > Perhaps the real problem is that MOST software doesn't make it into
> > wide-spread use, and hence cannot assemble a base of support for an
> > open source effort.  Specialized software tends to have smaller
> > audiences - requiring either a very high price-tag, or a grant, to
> > support a dedicated development & support team.  And then there's
> > the 90% that's a mix of pet projects, poorly implemented, that will
> > never make it as either commercial or open source.
> > 
> > Yes... there are lots of practical issues with the GNU project &
> > other libre software efforts - but they have a lot more to do with
> > lack of focus, design by committee, and, these days, politicization
> > of language & discussions, and ostracism of key people (e.g.,
> > Stallman, Torvalds).  The flaps over systemd (techno-politics) &
> > Stallman (gender politics) have been far more damaging to free
> > software, than financial matters.
> > 
> > All of this is, of course, one man's opinion.  Based on 50 years in
> > the networking business, including a bunch of years at BBN, selling
> > & leading lots of R&D projects, being the IT department for a
> > non-profit, and building a small service bureau. And, yes, I rely
> > on a Mac, and MS Office for lots of things - but I run my servers
> > on Linux, Apache, MySQL, Postfix, Spamassassin, WordPress, and
> > Sympa.
> > 
> > Miles Fidelman
> > 
> > 
> > -- 
> > In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
> > In practice, there is.  .... Yogi Berra
> > 
> > Theory is when you know everything but nothing works.
> > Practice is when everything works but no one knows why.
> > In our lab, theory and practice are combined:
> > nothing works and no one knows why.  ... unknown
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > libreplanet-discuss mailing list
> > libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org
> > https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss