iPad and the FSF
Oh FSF why do you make me embarrassed? Really I saw the article on ars about them protesting and I just said to myself “they have protested yourselves into obsolescence”. The flaw is they are protesting for something free and extremely positive but how they go about it is the opposite.
Do apple care its non free software included on most of their products, of course not. The FSF should simply shut up before they give all of us a bad name. They are the definition of great idea bad execution.
Oh and in the interest of funniness put your jokes about the iPad’s name below. My first thought when I heard it was that sounds like an Apple apartment.
The message was still negative, but at least the FSF was a) doing something other than asking for money and b) The protest was in the right place at the right time to effect media response.
See DRM is nasty stuff and we do need warnings about it’s long term impacts on technology. There is no way I’d refuse these guys the right the protest Apple for their DRM, at least it _is_ a political issue worth protesting.
All those are good points Martin the reason why I was embarrassed by them was that they were the only protesters and there was less than 10 of them there. It makes very little of what they are protesting for. Its very bad press.
I think that it is a political issue also and I think it should be dealt with at a political level but that wont happen I suppose.
So if your problem with the protest is that the FSF were the only one to protest and that less than ten guys showed up, why do you complain about the FSF? You should be complaining about the non-FSF orgs and those people who live in the area and did not show up, but should have.
I really wonder how you can be involved in a free software project like Ubuntu and think the FSF suck. Are you on crack?
I didnt say I wasnt supportive of free software I just dont like how the FSF go about it. Im not on crack and I really wonder what your affiliation is when you make a comment like that.
Re the iPad sounding like an apartment:
http://www.ipad.net.nz/
Hi,
I agree with you on one thing. The way they do it seems counter productive…
Six or Seven people at an apple event with funny signs ? Come on.
On that note I do not agree that they should just “shut up”. Of course Apple is a company that want to make money so of course they endorse DRM and want the tightest possible hand on the device they sell. However this is a problem. Apple touches literally millions of people (and so does Microsoft and so does Google and others). So there is a real danger that what they use as a business model becomes the norm. Why ? because most people are unaware that other ways are possible, or they don’t realise what are the profound implications of such things as remotely disabling your device or not being able to backup content you bought.
The same situation occurred in the past. Microsft made its OS the norm with emphasis on the user and poor handling of security (until recently). So it became the normal for maybe 90% of PC users to have viruses from times to times, trojan, malwares, normal to buy an antivirus for a high price and normal to have it not being able to stop 100% of the viruses. And normal to buy a new computer every two years or to reformat and reinstall from scracth every 6 months. So yes when a big company (or other entity for that matters) tries to imposes a particular model so that it becomes a defacto standard which in the end is not beneficial to the user but to the company alone, yes a thouthand times yes there is a problem. And the FSF is right in its role to try to raise awareness on this problem (that may be what you meant by “a wrong idea bad execution”). So while protesting with seven people might seem like a joke, I’d rather have this than having them just shut up. They could do more of course or differently. But for this I think they need more support. From you, from me, from any one who belive their ideas if not their means are the good ones.
My 2 cents,
cheers.
We do support the ideals by contributing to free software. The FSF havent done much contributing other than hosting and protesting. If they actually contributed I wouldnt complain so much. They preach free software ideals but dont try to push it forward.
@boggle: Did you ever thing someone wanted to use Linux because it is a great _open source_ project?
Ubuntu is the pragmatic distribution Fedora (sadly) is not. When Fedora 10 was released and there were no nvidia drivers supported by the pre-released X server git snapshot, surprise! My 2 30″ vertical monitors didn’t work. After putting in an ubuntu cd, turning my head sideways, and clicking “Enable Restricted Drivers”, I had a working setup without having to fiddle with the config too much. I’m an Ubuntu community member because it cares about the users above all else, not whether it is ideologically pure or not. Free software is great, but when given the option to cripple functionality or use nonfree software until a free equivalent is finished, I’ll use nonfree software. Oh, and working on Linux professionally has paid my bills for the past 5-6 years so yes I know how to do it the harder way. But why?
When I heard the new name, I thought the iPad must be for my iPeriod.
I’m with you on this one, Shane. As a big proponent of Free Software it irks me incredibly to see the FSF waste their resources on such petty things.
Lisat and I are on the same wavelength; first thing I thought of was “maxipad”.
Protests against Apple/DRM/lockware (and even against convicted Monopolists) are not “spectator sports”.
Everyone who cares deeply needs to be there.
It’s easy and convenient to say “that really sucked” when you chose not to go. Please show the FSF how to do it better. Lead by example.
Randall developers, testers and anyone else who contributes to making good free software is doing better than the FSF. The way you defeat them is to be better to offer a better product and show them how great free software is.
Its very simple and I am trying to lead by example.
I hope you agree that pragmatism isn’t always the best approach to problem solving, and should be used in moderation — the FSF advocates a strong message of idealism to balance other (sometimes harmful) pragmatic voices.
We need more people to become part of that community, to lend their time and their thoughts towards effectively promoting Free software. The FSF knows that many people are so busy with their lives and their hacking that time is something they cannot give, and that’s where the fund raisers come from. However, if you can spare some time to help us communicate our message more effectively, you should do it.
Libre Planet will be March 19-21 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. If you can make that meeting, it would be a wonderful opportunity to get involved and help the FSF change for the better.
Yours,
Ryan
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I got a pretty good response on YouTube with my comment:
“I’m worried people from Wisconsin won’t be able to differentiate between ‘iPod’ and ‘iPad’.”