Re: Advocating non-free softwares

[Tim Roberts]

Jan Nieuwenhuizen <address@hidden> wrote:

james writes:

>> Could you please be more aware and more careful about advocating the use
>> of non-free operating systems?

>
> Does this mean we shouldn't mention that we use non-free operating
> systems? Or ask questions, comments about non-free operating systems?

I think we can proudly advertise that LilyPond runs on all common
operating systems, I personally invested quite some time to create
that.  This empowers users who are for one reason or another still
stuck with a freedom-denying operating system.

I think it is wise to have some awareness about it when saying how
fantastic the experience is of using a certain piece of freedom-denying
software.

Are you at all aware of how nutty this sounds?  You have taken a sharp right turn into religion here.  You are asking people to be ashamed of themselves because they are using Windows.  That's fanaticism, not technology.  This is exactly the same thing as having a minister expect you to be ashamed to admit that you have a gay child.  It's extremism.  It's certainly not productive.

Here's another example.  Python works great on Windows.  It's increased my productivity measurably.  There is nothing shameful about me admitting that.  If you want to tell me that it would work better on Linux, that's perfectly fine, but it is completely unreasonable for you to expect me to censor myself because it happens to work great on Windows.

-- 
Tim Roberts, address@hidden
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.