The Scope and Ownership of fedora-list

[Ralf Corsepius]

On Wed, 2008-08-27 at 11:47 -0500, Mike McCarty wrote:
> Anders Karlsson wrote:
> > * Ralf Corsepius <rc040203 at freenet.de> [20080826 21:36]:
> >> On Tue, 2008-08-26 at 14:39 -0400, Matthew Saltzman wrote:
> >>> On Tue, 2008-08-26 at 07:13 +0200, Ralf Corsepius wrote:
> >>>> (Remember: Using Linux also is a political statement)
> >>> Maybe.  Maybe not.
> >> Well, to newcomer, it's likely not an obvious political statement, to
> >> Linux veterans supporting Linux rsp. one of it's flavors (here: Fedora)
> >> is a fully conscious active political statement/decision.
> > 
> > Chosing to use Linux may be a political statement. It may also be a "I
> > picked the best tool for the job, and this time, it happened to be
> > Linux".
> 
> That's my situation. I was requested by an employer who wanted
> me to install it. I just haven't removed it, because it works.
Great, somebody made a decision for you. 

> >> This might be news to newcomers who regard Fedora and Linux as "a
> >> technical alternative to Vista", ... but whether you like it or not,
> >> Linux comes with political and philosophical strings attached, whether
> >> you agree to them or not.
> > 
> > That is true.
> 
> Umm, the distro does not come with strings attached.
Of cause it does. You might want to have some closer looks into the
details, e.g. think about why you can't find certain SW bundled with the
distro, think about why some people are agitating against OSS licenses
or subsets of them?

A bit bluntly formulated: Linux is more than a "simple OS", Linux is
part of a sociological and political movement.

> > What's not true is the percieved need to ram political and
> > philosophical views down the neck of some poor newcomer that requires
> > technical assistance. (I've made this point before.)
Agreed, nevertheless, these folks should learn and understand about the
backgrounds - It's why I am saying, restricting a "fedora users"-list to
mere technical topics would be a severe mistake.

> I agree heartily. I suggest that the non-technical/political aspects
> be reserved for another group, like Fedora-Advocacy or sth similar.
You don't want to lean about your distro's heritage, backgrounds,
objectives and the consequences of these? 

You want to keep you head in the sand - Ostrich policy?

Ralf