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Re: Real men don't attack straw men

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To: Siju George <sgeorge.ml@...>
Cc: <slash@...>, <misc@...>
Date: Sunday, January 6, 2008 - 4:09 am

Developing a program ( real software ) for a non-free platform is big
    encouragement by loud communication ( actions speak better than words
    ) to use or continue using that non-free platform.

There are two issues here: the practical effects, and the message conveyed.

The practical effects are mixed.  Making free apps run on non-free
systems paves the way for some users to migrate to free systems, and
for some users eliminates a motivation to migrate.  So it has both
good and bad effects.  I don't know which effect is bigger, but I
speculate that the good effect is bigger over all.  The negative
effect is limited to power users, people who might switch systems as
if it were an easy thing to do.  Most users are reluctant to change
operating systems at all.

The part of the practical effect that is negative is something we
cannot prevent.  If we were to delete the Windows support from Emacs
or GCC, that would not stop people from running Emacs or GCC on
Windows.  The sort of people that would choose an operating system on
this basis could easily maintain and redistribute such code.

The other issue is the message we convey.  That is something we can
control, but it also shows the difference between these two cases.
Providing a recipe to install a non-free program is very direct and
clear support for its use.  Making your free program work with
something non-free if that's already installed is not such a direct
message of support.  It makes sense to treat the two cases
differently.
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Messages in current thread:
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Marco Peereboom, (Sun Dec 30, 10:14 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Mon Dec 31, 6:30 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Marco Peereboom, (Mon Dec 31, 8:24 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Tue Jan 1, 5:24 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Siju George, (Wed Jan 2, 4:05 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Thu Jan 3, 5:50 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Ruben Gonzalez Arnau, (Thu Jan 3, 12:58 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Siju George, (Thu Jan 3, 1:55 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Sat Jan 5, 1:54 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Lars Hansson, (Sat Jan 5, 6:18 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Siju George, (Sat Jan 5, 5:14 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Gregg Reynolds, (Thu Jan 3, 4:00 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Siju George, (Thu Jan 3, 11:30 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Sat Jan 5, 1:55 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Siju George, (Sat Jan 5, 5:07 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Sun Jan 6, 4:09 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, L, (Sun Jan 6, 7:50 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Karthik Kumar, (Sun Jan 6, 4:33 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Sun Jan 6, 4:09 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Tony Abernethy, (Sun Jan 6, 4:27 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Sun Jan 6, 2:09 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Sat Jan 5, 1:55 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Mayuresh Kathe, (Thu Jan 3, 10:49 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Michael Schmidt, (Thu Jan 3, 11:57 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, dereck, (Thu Jan 3, 12:18 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Allie D., (Thu Jan 3, 11:05 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Rui Miguel Silva Seabra, (Thu Jan 3, 11:02 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Marco Peereboom, (Thu Jan 3, 3:19 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Marco Peereboom, (Tue Jan 1, 5:45 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men , Theo de Raadt, (Tue Jan 1, 5:43 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men , Theo de Raadt, (Mon Dec 31, 6:58 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Wed Jan 2, 5:54 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men , Theo de Raadt, (Wed Jan 2, 2:02 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Craig Skinner, (Fri Jan 4, 7:01 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard M. Stallman - Autoreply Message..., (Fri Jan 4, 7:01 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, David Vasek, (Fri Jan 4, 7:24 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Sunnz, (Fri Jan 4, 8:26 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Fri Jan 4, 1:29 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Gregg Reynolds, (Fri Jan 4, 4:02 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Sat Jan 5, 10:30 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Kurt B. Kaiser, (Mon Jan 7, 2:12 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Andrés, (Sat Jan 5, 11:26 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Sun Jan 6, 6:46 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Dusty, (Sun Jan 6, 7:27 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Mon Jan 7, 12:18 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, , (Mon Jan 7, 7:20 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Reid Nichol, (Mon Jan 7, 3:14 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Mon Jan 7, 1:16 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, chefren, (Tue Jan 8, 5:06 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Reid Nichol, (Tue Jan 8, 4:11 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Dusty, (Mon Jan 7, 1:23 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Marc Balmer, (Mon Jan 7, 5:40 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Siju George, (Tue Jan 8, 3:51 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Dusty, (Mon Jan 7, 6:10 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Siju George, (Mon Jan 7, 5:33 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Marc Espie, (Sat Jan 5, 11:14 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Sun Jan 6, 6:47 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Marc Espie, (Sun Jan 6, 7:35 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Mon Jan 7, 12:18 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Reid Nichol, (Mon Jan 7, 3:29 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Roberto J. Dohnert, (Mon Jan 7, 2:54 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Mon Jan 7, 1:16 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Eric Furman, (Tue Jan 8, 4:12 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Reid Nichol, (Tue Jan 8, 4:13 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Jan Stary, (Tue Jan 8, 5:26 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Gregg Reynolds, (Mon Jan 7, 3:46 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Dave Anderson, (Mon Jan 7, 3:39 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Gilles Chehade, (Mon Jan 7, 4:12 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Marco Peereboom, (Mon Jan 7, 3:39 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Matthew Dempsky, (Mon Jan 7, 6:06 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Tony Abernethy, (Mon Jan 7, 2:42 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Reid Nichol, (Mon Jan 7, 3:40 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Ray Percival, (Mon Jan 7, 3:16 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Tony Abernethy, (Mon Jan 7, 3:39 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Jason Dixon, (Sat Jan 5, 11:03 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men , Theo de Raadt, (Fri Jan 4, 2:35 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Amarendra Godbole, (Fri Jan 4, 2:03 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Sunnz, (Thu Jan 3, 1:16 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Sat Jan 5, 1:56 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Sunnz, (Sat Jan 5, 9:05 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Fri Jan 4, 1:27 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Jacob Grydholt Jensen, (Fri Jan 4, 5:01 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men , Theo de Raadt, (Fri Jan 4, 2:36 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Richard Stallman, (Sat Jan 5, 10:29 am)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men, Gregg Reynolds, (Sat Jan 5, 7:46 pm)
Re: Real men don't attack straw men , Theo de Raadt, (Sun Jan 6, 2:38 am)
Re: Free - First Ten To Call B u l l S h i t, Amarendra Godbole, (Sun Jan 6, 6:57 am)
Re: Free - First Ten To Call B u l l S h i t, Floor Terra, (Sun Jan 6, 11:11 am)
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