[OT] Viduthalai? Re: [DS-discuss]Re: your mail

[Ramanan Selvaratnam]

Hello all,

Glad to see some activity on the list :-)

By way of introduction, I live in the UK and want to see a better world 
in the future.
Freedom in software is something I think is a must for such a bright 
future to dawn upon us.
Also the values of sharing and cooperation as propagated through the use 
of 'libre' software  is something that appeals to me.

Rahul Sundaram wrote:

> [...]
>
> > ,----
> > | * use of term free software
> >    
>
>
> i am against the use of a confusing term such as
> free.i believe gnu should have avoided this and uses
> the term freedom software instead. the term open
> source is much more appealing to the people than free
> software. every time i use it i have differentiate it
> with freeware which is kind of annoying. of course we
> can use regional words but they are workarounds and
> free software remains a confusing term.
>  
First let me point out that the word open source is not (and should not 
be) an appealing concept to people.
Only a minority, namely programmers and possibly their employers might 
be happy about this concept.


Free in both  senses  overlap  only in english and german (frei).
Maybe other languaages too that I do not know of.
Even then I cannot understand why someone should be shy not to use the 
term free to mean freedom.
If free software is misinterpreted in financial terms by misinformed 
people so be it.
To me from day one free software meant what it is supposed to mean :-)

We must make every effort possible by us to inform the misinformed ones 
but sometimes you cannot change political/immoral conditioing that easily.
Further in financially poorer parts of this planet and in all schools  
there is no information yet on this matter, so such an information 
campaign should be an easier task.
Also let us note that as an example that the french do not have a 
problem with the word 'free' as monority who speak english or german . I 
also suspect the Japaneese maybe the Chinese too have no problem ........
The point I am trying to make is that there are other people and 
cultures in this planet other than english and german speakers.
If freedom is put before financial concerns ...what can you do?

As I  suspect most of us here are of Indian origin and possibly Tamils 
(?) I would like to try and suggest the use of the word 'viduthalai' for 
freedom in software sense.
The two syllable word as mentioned on another related mail by Suraj is 
too complicatied.
Especially so when we had great freedom fighters (not just in the 
political but in the social sphere too) of contemporary era like 
Suppirakavi Parathiyar use the term so effectively
Viduthalai, viduthalai, viduthalai...... he wanted 'viduthalai' for many 
aspects of soceity and I am sort of confident that he would have 
endorsed any such proposal to  use 'viduthalai' w.r.t free software.

The root 'vidu' means 'to leave'. Very fitting as free software is about 
the attitude towards software (and related matters).
Again with apologies to non tamil speakers..... refer to the widely used 
concept of 'aanmiha viduthalai'.

But I note that the fsf-i people seem to use 'swantra'.

I am no lingusit but is ti the same as 'suthanthiram' in tamil?

Suthanthiram in tamil means independence (as in the violent movie 
'indenpendence day' :-).
If free as in free speech is a perfect description of free software then 
'suthanthira' is a fitting word.

But I feel the indic languages are more rich here (Tamil definitely ;-0) as
free as in freedom has a seperate word....'viduthalai'!

It is progressive and will express the concept of free software more 
effectively and accurately.

Please reply as I want to discuss this further / consult more informed 
people.

Best wishes,

Ramanan

PS: with all respect to the non secular nature of freedom
--------------------------------------------------------
"True peace arises
when all sense desires
are transcended
and
when one acts
free from all false conceptions
of proprietorship
and
from the consciousness of
exploitation arising from the
illusion of one's own supremacy"

- Bhagavad Gita
Chapter2 v:71