Re: [Health] Issue upgrading a database from gnuhealth 3.2 to gnuhealth 3.4

[Luis Falcon]

Dear Armand


On Mon, 17 Jun 2019 16:27:47 +0000 (UTC)
Armand MPASSY-NZOUMBA <address@hidden> wrote:

>  Dear Luis, 
> 
>     On Sunday, June 16, 2019, 10:43:59 AM GMT+1, Luis Falcon
> <address@hidden> wrote:  
> 
>  
> > I would run naked around the European Parliament if that would help
> > the cause, but I can not do things that are markedly opposite to my
> > philosophy of freedom and equity.  
> 
> > Running GNU Health in non-libre platforms is not good, from the
> > ethical and privacy point of views. It is crucial to use libre
> > operating systems in healthcare, so, for the sake of the community,
> > I will not write a single line of code in Microsoft Windows
> > environment.  
> I fully agree with you. This is the reason the GNU Health community
> support GNU Health and appreciate your leadership.
> 

Thank you for your kind words. I know you're doing a great job
progressively implementing Libre operating systems,  in
particular, in all the GNU Health implementations you do in the
countries you visit around Africa.

> > That said, we are about Freedom, and if someone wants to run GNU
> > Health in a virtual environment, then is her / his choice. Same if
> > someone wants to port the gnu health HMIS client to run in MS
> > Windows.  
> 
> This is a pragmatic approach because most of health institutions
> including those funded by WHO and other UN agencies have an IT
> infrastructure based on MS Windows OS. The good thing is that a
> number of them have problems funding their day to day activities.
> Therefore Free/Libre Software is also a very good way to reduce
> operating costs. Kind regards, Armand 

Sometimes reduced budget make companies to jump to Libre software.
While is a start, they should see the advantages of GNU Health and
other free / libre software not in the cost reduction, but in the
freedom and sustainability that it confers to their health centers and
to their community.

Thank you again for the work you do !

All the best
Luis