Ubuntu Marketing ( on the Fedora Marketing List ? )

[Clint Savage]

On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 5:11 AM, Mike Feravolo
<321.784.5553 at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Hello:
>
>  I am a little confused here, since I read also the Ubuntu Marketing
>  Mailing List. However it seems to me some people here want to restrict
>  my freedom to use propriety software if I choose to do so.
>
>  Personally I could care less about watching movies and listening to
>  music on my computer, since I own a TV and a Stereo. But on of my
>  clients wanted to know if he can play an MP3 on a Linux System.
>
>  When I went of to the Fedora Machine in my office to play the MP3, it
>  gave me the rant of about free software and then pointed me to the
>  propriety codecs and I downloaded the on that didn't cost anything.
>
>
>  That's the way it should work if you want people to use Linux over
>  Windows. Skip the load of pseudo-political jive nobody gives a damn
>  about and  just make things to work.

>  If people want to use propriety software, give them the freedom to do so
>  with a minimum amount of hassle. There are "Totally" free Linux distros
>  (e.g. gNewSense) and they don't work on a lot of hardware, these are not
>  going to sell Linux to the masses.

<soapbox>
There is a big problem here if we start thinking like that.  The point
isn't to take away freedoms of people who want to use proprietary
software, but rather to provide solutions to *everything* in a free
and open way.  The point you make about restricting people from using
proprietary software, as noted in several other replies isn't the
issue, but rather the fact that you would like to use them at all.  As
a Fedora user and ambassador, I spend time after time explaining this
to people.  To me, this is the more important issue, don't help the
other side just because everyone else does.  Let me use a phrase from
my childhood and say 'if Ubuntu jumped off a cliff, would you?'

Next time you go to install those proprietary codecs on your system,
think about what FOSS has provided legally and free.
</soapbox>

I should qualify this with the fact that I have a few pieces of
non-free software I use because everyone does, but it doesn't make me
happy.

Thank you for letting me rant and providing my philosophical argument.
 Freedom is awesome, even just the simple freedom to speak ones mind.

Cheers,

Clint Savage
Fedora Ambassador