[PLUG] Free Softwares for School

[Devendra Laulkar]

Hi,

--- Roshan <d_rosh2001 at yahoo.co.in> wrote:
> 
> Piracy is a term that many are familiar with,
> especially  people in Indian cities. I need not tell
> you the causes and the problems caused from it.
> There
> are two ways to it. Either use free software or Free
> Software. Note the distinction I use. 

I don't understand the connection to piracy at all.
At the risk of sounding like a zealot I am going to
say this :- 

There is no difference between free software & Free
Software (esp in a LUG mailing list)

Both of them refer to "Free Software" as defined by
the FSF.

Then of course, there is other kind of software called
as "freeware" or "shareware".

> 
> It is not difficult for people to migrate to a Free
> OS
> completely. But there are a lot of factors that one
> has to consider. Apart from that, not all hardware
> that a user buys has open specification or drivers
> whose source code is available. Somewhere or the
> other, there are blocks of non-free code. Perhaps,
> the
> BIOS that one uses (if in a EEPROM) in a laptop, is
> non-free and an alternative called Linux BIOS is on
> its way to be tested under few motherboards. 

We are not discussing full scale migration or drivers
or EEPROM or BIOS or even having a fully free system.
Where has migration come into the picture ?

The Windows part is not bothering me(Well its
bothering me, but not to the extent of starting a
flame)

> > And then you claim to believe in Free Software &
> > associated with FSF. This is sacrilege !!
> 
> The reason I believe in Free Software is precisely
> because of the four freedoms offered. As far as I
> can
> recall, I have been able to follow only Freedom 0
> and
> Freedom 2. 
> 
> The point that I'm trying to make is, there's still
> a long way to go. There are several steps that has
to
> be taken in order to ensure a smooth transition. 

Again, I have absolutely no idea where migration & the
"long way to go" has come into the picture.

All I am saying is that you are an FSF fellow, you
believe in their goals, you have read about what "Free
Software" means. Don't promote proprietary software
unnecessarily. 

-Devendra Laulkar.


       
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