Non FOSS and Fedora

[Sturla Holm Hansen]

On Tue, 2004-01-13 at 18:16, Fritz Whittington wrote:
> On or about 2004-01-13 03:50, Colin Charles whipped out a trusty #2 
> pencil and scribbled:
> 
> >On Mon, 2004-01-12 at 21:35, Adam Kosmin wrote:
> >  
> >
> >>I'll spell it out for you. By allowing this documentation to exist on
> >>fedoranews.org, readers are basically being told "It's ok to use and
> >>install non-FOSS software on your computer. In fact, we'll even show you
> >>how!".
> >>    
> >>
> Perhaps I'm just a bit dense, but I would think all of us have the right 
> to install whatever software we wish on our *personal* computers, 
> whether it's FOSS, non-FOSS, or dental FLOSS, it's our decision.  (The 
> question of whether the software was obtained legally or not is an 
> *entirely* different question, although it might be an important 
> question.)  Secondly, since this is an individual right, and since 
> people probably have varying opinions on the details of this, I don't 
> think trying to convince others to think the same way you think is 
> apropriate in a *technical* help mailing list.  There are plenty of 
> *-advocacy lists, probably one for FOSS.
> 
> So if someone asks how to obtain/install an mp3 codec for mplayer, 
> that's a technical question that should get a technical answer.  An 
> additional note that in some jurisdictions, a royalty is due to patent 
> holders is OK, but a sermon on FOSS is not on topic for this list, IMHO.
> 
> Sorry to be so blunt, but if it's a pig, you just have to call it a 
> pig.  :-)

I agree, but I just wanted to add one more thing.
I personally am a great FOSS-fan, and if I can avoid using non-FOSS
software I do, but not to the degree of really loosing functionality.
When a friend of mine started to try out Linux and found it wouldn't
play his mp3-collection that was enough to make him give up on Linux,
because that's one of the things he uses his pc for a lot.
Of course I helped him solve the problem, anyone thinking I shouldn't
have done so because mp3 is a non-FOSS format is in my
not-at-all-humble-oppinion completely off track!
Of course we should advocate using FOSS-software where it's possible and
advisable, but come on!

Sturla