[Reader-list] F$F v/s free software

[Raju Mathur]

Hi Prabhat,

Fascinating thoughts!

My comments under...

>>>>> "Prabhat" == Prabhat Kumar <prabhatmuhurta at yahoo.co.in> writes:

    Prabhat> In support of Chatterjee’s mail I would like to add few
    Prabhat> more words. NIIT and WEBEL are not only doing
    Prabhat> e-governance but also setting up community based low cost
    Prabhat> education and training centers and information kiosks.

Umm, so the fact that NIIT and WEBEL are helping the community
exonerates MS from all its sins?  That's a new way of looking of
things... lateral, at the very least.

    Prabhat> On the contrary due to lack of £inux education and
    Prabhat> training programmes, actually the knowledge is controlled
    Prabhat> by very few programmers. They enjoy certain monopoly in
    Prabhat> the field of £inux programming. Open source acts as very
    Prabhat> good cover up as most of the people are not able to write
    Prabhat> programmes. Thus control automatically remains in the
    Prabhat> hand of organization like F$F.

I fail to see your point here.  Are you saying that Open Source (or
Free Software) are actually closed because not enough people have the
skill to write programs?  By your logic, Pfizer should be damned
tomorrow if it opens up the process of making an anti-AIDS drug since
99.999999% of the people in the world have no way of manufacturing
drugs.  Any author who makes his/her works public is damned because
most of the people in our country are illiterate.  This /mailing list/
is damned because it's an elitist tool available to only a small
fraction of a percent of people in our country.

If you're so concerned about this putative community that you keep
referring to in your message why aren't you spending your time working
for their upliftment instead of playing intellectual games using
elitist media?  How is this going to help them?

    Prabhat> If one observes closely, F$F works against freedom. It
    Prabhat> has no programme of expansion of knowledge base. It
    Prabhat> entirely works with the pretension of “free” as free
    Prabhat> market, where every person is free to use free software
    Prabhat> provided that person has his own ability to use free
    Prabhat> software. Programmes are shared but not the know-how. It
    Prabhat> is like giving away the house without the key. The key of
    Prabhat> knowledge is in control of very few.  More over,
    Prabhat> documentation and programmes are available on net, and in
    Prabhat> India luxury of downloading documentation and programme
    Prabhat> is only available to very few corporate giants. Most of
    Prabhat> the company stuffs work on dial up connection, which is
    Prabhat> used only under the control of manager and company
    Prabhat> requirement. Staffs hardly get opportunity to use
    Prabhat> internet for their own purpose. In most of the cases they
    Prabhat> are not even allowed to see their personal e-mails. Lets
    Prabhat> not talk about those people who have no internet
    Prabhat> connection.  For them thinking of £inux is day dream.

The Free Software movement has many goals.  Making Free Software is
one of them.  Disseminating it another.  Documenting it is a third.
What I read from your message is that since the Free Software movement
has not setup community training centers for free to make information
about Free Software available to the masses it has no right to exist
or to have any say in any matter of importance.  I find that more a
failure of corporates who're in bed with MS than of Free Software
itself.

If you'd looked around a little bit before you wrote your message
you'd have found oodles of information about FSF software, including
information on how to extend it, how to modify it, how to strip it
down to work in minimal environments; that you consider these aspects
of control indicates... never mind :-)

You may also like to pick up a copy of recent magazines which give
Linux CD's for free along with the magazine.  Come to a Linux-Delhi
meeting where you can pick up copied Linux on CD for Rs 20 (the cost
of a blank) or for nothing if you know how to turn out your empty
pockets.  Install Linux on a 100 computers from a single CD.  Make as
many copies of the CD as you want for just the cost of copying and
distribute them to to the ``community'' and all those deprived office
staff who never get to see the Internet.

    Prabhat> Unfortunately, in India freedom in free software is more
    Prabhat> than fallacy. Though F$F is new but £inux is used in
    Prabhat> India for a long period of time. But there is not a
    Prabhat> single effort seen by the £inux sects, though almost
    Prabhat> every city has a £inux User Group, to share the knowledge
    Prabhat> in the society. Building the community based on sharing
    Prabhat> as the philosophy of free software claims is only thing,
    Prabhat> which is not seen in their activity.

    Prabhat> In India £inux User Groups are seem to be only interested
    Prabhat> in monopoly, corporate marketing/servicing and
    Prabhat> e-governance, basically making big money by the holy name
    Prabhat> of freedom!

Ah, I presume that you're an active member of many User Groups and
Linux/GNU-related mailing lists in India to be in a position to make
such a definitive statement.  You are, aren't you?

The fight for freedom has to be fought at many levels.  I have no
issues with your approach; don't damn my method just because it's
different or doesn't fit into whatever -ism is the flavour of the
month today.

Closed minds are the biggest hurdle to individual freedom, and I
grieve to see that those whom I considered my peers suffer from the
same malaise that has kept this country from achieving anything except
grandiose words and ideals in the past 5 1/2 decades.  Anyway, let's
all talk a bit more about this, since talking's just about the most
productive activity that we seem to be capable of.

Regards,

-- Raju

    Prabhat> Prabhat

-- 
Raju Mathur          raju at kandalaya.org           http://kandalaya.org/