Re: [seul-edu] SEUL Licensing (was: Our presence at trade shows)

[Doug Loss <dloss@suscom.net>]

Hilaire Fernandes wrote:

> Doug Loss writes:
>  > I'd much rather see reasonably priced commercial
>  > educational software for Linux than poorly or not-at-all maintained free
>  > equivalents.  Of course, I'd like to see well-maintained, innovative, useful
>  > free educational software most of all, but I'm not going to refuse evrything
>  > else while waiting for it.
>
> You are doing more than not refusing, you are advocating for
> commercial port. This is a big difference. In our school network we
> have some non free software for GNU/Linux but I will not ask to Corel
> about a Corel Draw, instead I will prefer to contact the Sketch author
> and ask what kind of help he needs.
>

I am definitely doing so.  Your example is well chosen--Sketch exists as an initial
effort towards doing the things that Corel Draw does.  Now, rather than ask MECC to
port Amazon Trail to Linux, which free project should we attempt to help?  There
_is_ no one working on similar programs for Linux; I've checked.  As soon as such a
project starts we'll gladly support it as much as we can.  Should we wait until
someone starts such a project and just tell people who are interested in using
Linux, "No, sorry, such programs don't exist on Linux," or should we encourage
companies to port their commercial software to Linux (Commercial isn't a dirty word;
there's nothing intrinsically wrong or less pure about software for a fee.  That's
the first and last I'll say about this basically political and philosophical
issue.)?

>  > There's an axis between total pragmatism and total idealism.  At one end, any
>  > means justify the end; at the other, the means _define_ the end.  We all
>  > exist at some point along this axis.  For me, the end is using Linux to
>  > enhance education (a vague goal, I know).  The means include being inclusive
>  > of anyone or any group that sincerely and honorably wants to work toward a
>  > similar end.
>
> Do you think Linux, GCC, GDB, Gnome, Kde, Gimp will have come true if
> RMS didn't push so hard for 16 years ?

Well, perhaps KDE isn't so good an example, since Qt didn't meet RMS's approval
until very recently (if it does).  However, obviously his continued push for free
software had a major influence on the development of all of these.  Please don't
misinterpret my not insisting on nothing but free software as being a rejection of
free software; it isn't that.  As I've said continually, free software is my first
choice.  But in niches where such isn't available and isn't likely to be forthcoming
soon I'd much rather see quality, reasonably-priced non-free software than nothing
at all.  Refusing to use anything that isn't free software will greatly hinder our
ability to get Linux into schools, I suspect.

This is my last message on licensing.  We clearly have different viewpoints, and I
hope we respect each other's views.  I'll happily promote and encourage OFSET in all
its efforts along with encouraging educational software houses to port their
products to Linux.  I think our community is big enough to include all our divergent
viewpoints.

--
Doug Loss                 God is a comedian playing
Data Network Coordinator  to an audience too afraid
Bloomsburg University     to laugh.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Voltaire