--- Devendra Laulkar wrote: > Lets just step back & see what happened. A person is > asking for freely distributable software for schools > on the Pune *GNU/Linux* Users Mailing List. > People are recommending free software & alternatives > to proprietary software.
I would request the OP to clear things out. > Instead of recommending free software, you are doing > exactly opposite - finding proprietary replacements > for free software. 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. 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. > 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. [OT] If I sound rude, please forgive me. I don't intend to. [/OT] -- FSF of India Associate Fellow - http://www.gnu.org.in http://www.somaiya.edu/sksasc ubunturos @ freenode __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new http://in.answers.yahoo.com/ -- ______________________________________________________________________ Pune GNU/Linux Users Group Mailing List: (plug-mail@plug.org.in) List Information: http://plug.org.in/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/plug-mail Send 'help' to [EMAIL PROTECTED] for mailing instructions.
