[seul-edu] Re:imposing of standards

[zeruch <mrzenn@precog.com>]

Manuel Gutierrez Algaba wrote:

> 
> The good thing about free soft movement is that allows you to think
> in a non-Microsoft way, if you like.

No, I hope not.  I really am of the opinion that Free Software is good
because it is a better method, not because it is not something else that
is generally regarded as crap.  The whole 'enemy of my enemy' gets very
old very fast.

> The bad thing about free
> soft movement is that some are trying to imposing acceptable ways
> of thinking :

People say that about everyone from the lowly users to RMS himself...I
think the whole structure of free software makes that a moot point.

> - if you want to produce standard doc --> docbook
> - texinfo instead of man pages
> - Guile instead of Scheme
> - Gnome and Kde
> - sourceforge if you want to promote a new project

All of the examples you mentioned above are somewhat misleading. 
- If you do not want to use DocBook don't, but some folks do (for
whatever reasons), LaTeX is still very alive and well. 
- I don't think manpages are going away anytime soon (and if it is its
because most manpages these days are not updated, ergo, they are
becoming useless in some cases - and I personally prefer man to texinfo,
but I can still see where things are going wrong). 
- How is Guile a standard over Scheme? Both are still actively used, and
there are new projects based around them all the time.
- Gnome vs. KDE has become so convoluted as to not be worth my time.  I
use Windowmaker for low-end machines and Enlightenment/EFM for high-end.
Guess what? It was my liberty to do so...
- Sourceforge is touchy, because I was part of the ignition team for
this. But I think its safe to say that Sourceforge isnt a standard, it
just happens to be the only thing of its kind. Others tried to do
similar things but on a smaller and bloated scale (or recently with
convoluted business models attached to them), and it hasn't worked.  You
can still post your project to LinuxBerg, Freshmeat, C|Net, etc., it
just so happens you can do a ton more than just promote on SF. SF wan't
developed in a marketing meeting, it was created by 4 developers working
almost entirely incognito (no one in marketing knew about it until the
week of release, only the community group, our CEO, and some engineers
knew -- it even had a codename internally. Project: Alexandria).  They
wanted to make something for developers, not a marketing ploy.  It
worked, and you cannot fault them for doing a good job.  I'm sorry if
doing something well offends you.

> ....
> 
> I like "libertad absoluta" of thinking.

Probably because those structures in society which require more rigid
forms of thinking are already in place and you don't have to concern
yourself with them. Any group with 2 + people have to usually compromise
to and fro to get a median that people can function under, because no
two single units are going to be duplicates.  You are then making
decisions based on the valuation youplace on the groups goals as a
whole, and your personal preferences.  Reading too much Amitai Etzioni
will do this to you ;)

> BTW, "libre" means
> completely and absolute  unlimited, unconditioned and unbound.

It means Freedom.

z