[Novalug] [Ma-linux] [FOSE] Starting the discussion

[Serge Wroclawski]

On Sat, Oct 04, 2008 at 02:10:11PM -0400, greg pryzby wrote:
> FLOSS is fine. In the term though, is it free beer or speech (I don't
> know anymore as I haven't kept up with the political stuff).

Well Greg, you've been in the community since 1994 and you haven't figured it out yet, I guess I'll try once more and hope that you get it.

Free Software is about freedom, as in free speech.

> As an aside a point I made was, solutions that solved problems were
> important to show. How you did was discussed after the viewer agrees
> the solution works for them.
> 

> My experience is most people don't care the detail (implementation) of
> the solution. Instead,
> 
> Does it work?
> Does it meet my requirements?
> How much does it cost ($ now for product rolled out and running)?

Professionally, from the time I've known you (1997-now), it's my understanding you've been in either a consulting or sales role though, so that's to be expected. People 
who are going to someone with wallets open are often looking for someone to solve thier problem for them, anyway and anyhow.

And of course there's no diachotomy here. People interested in freedom can are /are/ interested in solving practical problems, that's why it's the Free Software people 
doing the dirty work like working on the low level guts of the system like gcc, glibc, shells and so much else of the ugly guts as well as working hard to create a Free 
flash player (Gnash). I don't know how much more practical you can get than rolling up your sleeves and solving problems.

- Serge