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

[Msavoritias]

   Really? FSF has a Discord instance? That's baffling.
   I agree though with previous points Free Software has effectively won.
   Everybody chooses MIT license nowdays.
   The question about next steps for me is: Do we start promoting for a
   copyleft world now?
   Because as far as I have seens FSF and GNU has been mainly for Free
   Software goal up until now.
   MSavoritias

   On Fri, Jul 24, 2020 at 22:14, Jim Garrett <jimgarrett@posteo.net>
   wrote:

   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:
   [1]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 <[2]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" [3]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 >
     <[4]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 >
     [5]libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org >
     [6]https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discus
     s

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References

   1. https://www.fsf.org/resources
   2. mailto:yasu@yasuaki.com
   3. https://community.coops.tech/
   4. mailto:mfidelman@meetinghouse.net
   5. mailto:libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org
   6. https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
   7. mailto:libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org
   8. https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss