[Dev] About EOMA68 video presentation license

André Silva emulatorman at riseup.net
Thu Aug 11 14:29:45 GMT 2016


On 08/11/2016 10:51 AM, André Silva wrote:
>> now, andre, i have a special favour to ask, it's because many people
>> really do not actually truly understand what software libre really is
>> about.  i wanted to reach out to you to explain some insights i have
>> learned from chris (thinkpenguin.com, my sponsor) and from watching dr
>> stallman be verbally attacked and abused during questions at hopeconf
>> 2016.
>>
>> people genuinely genuinely believe that to be committed to software
>> libre is some sort of zealous idealistic extremism - a form of mental
>> illness, even - which is not only downright rude but is totally wrong.
>> the people who believe this see a committment to ethical standards:
>> they don't like to be reminded that they made a conscious or
>> subconscious decision to COMPROMISE on ethical standards, and, rather
>> than admit that to themselves, they go into all-out ATTACK.  blame the
>> other person instead of accepting responsibility.  works a charm.
>>
>> in talking to chris i have come to learn that a committment to
>> software libre results very simply in hardware that JUST WORKS.  i
>> told people i think it was about 200 to 300 times: "hassle-free
>> computing: stuff that just works.  thinkpenguin do the research... so
>> that you don't have to".  and *everybody* i said that to got it
>> immediately.
>>
>> some examples: they sell ttyACM modems.  not to linux users... but to
>> windows users!!  people who have windows xp tend to live in remote
>> areas, where broadband is not profitable.  they have old conexant
>> soft-modems.  they upgrade to windows 7... only to find that the
>> drivers aren't maintained for windows 7!   why?  because... it's not
>> profitable.   now they're totally disconnected from the internet.  so
>> they phone up chris and say, "thank god you have ttyACM hard-modems -
>> please sell me one!"
>>
>> they sell PCIe-to-USB3 cards that they've researched work
>> out-of-the-box and do not require firmware.
>>
>> they sell AR9271 802.11n USB WIFI modems that they spent 2 years
>> walking atheros through the process of releasing the ath9k_htc
>> firmware that goes into the libre firmware repositories.
>>
>> and guess what?  the only support calls that they get are down to
>> flaky customer hardware (usually extremely poor quality laptops that
>> the customer ows where the USB controllers are not properly
>> functional) and to "whitelisting" in proprietary BIOSes (usually WIFI
>> cards so that Dell and IBM can sell you expensive whitelisted PCIe
>> products at a huge markup).
>>
>> it's the same with printers: they pre-vet the printers.... and the USB
>> Audio dongles... and the Hauppaug USB TV tuners... all these things
>> *just work* because they've gone to a lot of trouble to find them,
>> check them, track down the firmware and make sure it's libre.
>>
>> 12 years ago i bought *six* soft-modems in a row, taking every single
>> one back to the shop because none of them worked with linux.  that was
>> 2 days travel-time wasted.
>>
>> *this* is what software libre is really about, on a really practical
>> level.  not even anything really to do with conspiracy theories or
>> spying and so on, although we know now that that's not actually
>> conspiracy but that it *really does* happen.  we also know that 900
>> million qualcomm-based android devices are soon going to end up in
>> landfill.
>>
>> what we really do not hear enough about is that if you respect
>> software freedom and use libre hardware, the driver incompatibility
>> issues that everyone over the past 10-15 years has associated with
>> hardware and put up with despite really really hating it.... all those
>> issues disappear.
>>
>> i know you truly understand this, because you run libre software down
>> to the bedrock of your computing devices, but please can i urge you to
>> consider making it a really key point of your talk so that more people
>> can get the message that there really is a way to have less problems
>> with their computers.

Ok Luke, thanks for your suggestion, since my point of view the current
paradigm around the world is "technocracy", our goal is that hardware
and software should be adapted for the user, not other way they are
doing currently. It is similar than a bed, a client and user should buy
a bed adapted for his/her body, if you buy a bike for your son, you
should buy a one adapted for kids, not for adults, therefore all things
around the world should works in that way, however in computing
concepts, some companies puts an idea that we have to follow what they
are doing and we should adapt to them under imprinting (psychology)
under an effect called Baby duck syndrome [0].

It's ridiculous, we are losing our rights and freedom to choose our way
and have our own control in our lives and things that are using.
Parabola goal is give the full control for their users thought Free
Software, but it is not enough, hardware needs go to the same way. This
is the way we should manage to change the paradigm and make others out
of that brainwashing bubble made by those companies that have interest
to have control of our lives. It i will talk in that conference.

[0]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprinting_(psychology)#Baby_duck_syndrome

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