[H-GEN] Who are we? What are we doing? How did it come to this?

[andrew laidlaw]

ST wrote:

Who are we? We're the Home Unix Machine Brisbane Users Group. This is
very approximate, for various values of 'Unix', 'Home' and 'Brisbane'.

ST wrote:

Some questions I come to, with the dissonance I see from the earlier
questions I pose, I come to this question:
 - Is it acceptable to expect the ideals of Open Source or Free
Software to be followed by other members of our group?

At face value, the points stephen is making are not entirely without merit.  Why should a member of a unix group adopt open principles? 

I see no clear answer.  In general there is no good reason to expect it of all members.  That much is obvious.

On the other hand, whether HUMBUG member or not, anyone choosing to podcast linux news really should take  the relevant open principles, or "ideals", into account.

I have struggled for a good analogy.

Would it be okay for a member of an environmental group to republish a forestry agenda on paper sourced from old growth forests on the grounds that a) it is more convenient and b) not all members are committed to conserving forests?

It goes without saying that the one who is actually doing the work here  has every right to eschew ogg and do it in mp3, but I simply point out that that does contribute, albeit in a small way, to undermining the open format. Many a mickle makes a muckle.

One way or another, undermining those formats undermines linux.  So, if one sees fit to promote linux for whatever reasons, it still makes sense to do so in accordance with open ideals, even if one does not personally give a damn about openness per se.


Regards... 

Andrew.

--- On Wed, 16/5/12, Thorne, Stephen <stephen at thorne.id.au> wrote:

From: Thorne, Stephen <stephen at thorne.id.au>
Subject: [H-GEN] Who are we? What are we doing? How did it come to this?
To: "humbug general" <general at lists.humbug.org.au>
Received: Wednesday, 16 May, 2012, 12:51 AM

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Hi!

With the recent discussion of open formats on the mailing list, I was
wondering what list I was posting to, and I remembered that it was the
HUMBUG mailing list. The Unix one.

So um. Lets talk about that.

Who are we? We're the Home Unix Machine Brisbane Users Group. This is
very approximate, for various values of 'Unix', 'Home' and 'Brisbane'.

What are we doing? Apparently we're salivating over the idea of open
formats, railing against the patent machine, and promoting the ideals
of the FSF and RMS. We're also wondering why the heck we're doing
that. We're also publishing information about linux. (that's just this
week).

How did it come to this? Well, years of Linux being the one true home
unix OS. BSD going into decline, and years of referring to 'Solaris'
as 'Slowaris' and generalized scoffing at HP/UX. Plus SCO.

Some questions I come to, with the dissonance I see from the earlier
questions I pose, I come to this question:
 - Is it acceptable to expect the ideals of Open Source or Free
Software to be followed by other members of our group?

Stephen Thorne.
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