Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Why contains in nonfree that's not ethical?

[Adam Bolte]

On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 12:01:39PM -0500, Will Hill wrote:
> On Tuesday 17 March 2015, Adam Bolte wrote:
> > the expectation is that they are getting something useful or
> > interesting to them in exchange for giving up their privacy
>
> We should not be passive and wait for people to find us.

I don't think we are, in general. But there are so few of us to get
the message across. It's still quite rare to come across someone else
that primarily uses GNU/Linux or another free software operating
system outside of a free software group.

And the real problem here is we have a situation where one person
might say "don't use Facebook, here's the problems with it" to
someone, and then 20 close friends and family members of that someone
will all say "add me on Facebook". Guess who they're going to listen
to? It's worsened when those "friends" won't communicate everything
via other means.


> I tell people that they need at least one libre computer for their
> communications, a computer completely without non free software.  It
> is fruitless to fight the battle on Windows, Microsoft has betrayed
> people and they know it.  Trusting a service like gmail to encrypt
> your mail is also a half measure that only increases people's
> frustration.  "Security" on non free platforms is basically an
> inconvenience to the user that achieves nothing.  We should tell
> people this, especially other people in the technical community, and
> tell them where to get real freedom.

Not a bad idea. But businesses would never go for it, and most
individuals wouldn't want to purchase and lug around two laptops or
switch between two desktops.

Probably two separate HDDs would suffice, with the free software one
fully encrypted and using a free software bootloader, but I think it's
going down a path that's too technical for most people, and also is
far less efficient than expectations would dictate.


> We can't win if we play the bully's game.  Now, more than ever, we
> can avoid it.

That's why I suggested focusing on promoting free software ethics and
software to students. Then those people may never need to play the
game to begin with. Students may the assist in pushing back efforts by
schools to mandate iPads, etc.

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