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A Historic Moment in Boston (Linux Journal)
Linux Journal looks forward
to the Desktop Linux Conference, coming to Boston next month. "The
Desktop Linux Conference aims to drive home the message that for the first
time in computing history, a legitimate desktop alternative is available
that is better, faster and cheaper. As an extension of the newly formed
Desktop Linux Consortium's mission of providing "wide scale understanding
and adoption of the Linux operating system and its applications for use on
the desktop", the program offers key champions of Linux: Bruce Perens, Nat
Friedman, Jeremy White, Sam Greenblatt, Mark Hinkle, Mark Westerman, Havoc
Pennington, Amy D. Wohl, Shuji Sado and many more."
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A Historic Moment in Boston (Linux Journal) Posted Oct 16, 2003 18:13 UTC (Thu) by frazier (guest, #3060) [Link] They should get Lindows to sign up as a sponsor and schedule Michael Robertson as the opening keynote speaker. Then about a month before the show change the schedule and move Bruce Perens into the opening keynote slot.C'mon, it'd be fun!
A Historic Moment in Boston (Linux Journal) Posted Oct 16, 2003 19:31 UTC (Thu) by BrucePerens (subscriber, #2510) [Link] Michael and Lindows are welcome. But I'll forego the rest of your suggestion :-)
A Historic Moment in Boston (Linux Journal) Posted Oct 17, 2003 0:00 UTC (Fri) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] Would an FSF representative be welcome?
A Historic Moment in Boston (Linux Journal) Posted Oct 17, 2003 0:52 UTC (Fri) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link] The FSF folks probably wouldn't come if you call it the "Desktop Linux Conference". And there is a good argument that it's a bad name, as Gnome runs just fine on BSD and Solaris, and KDE does as well. Therefore "Desktop GNU/Linux Conference" would also be a bad name. Why not find a name that doesn't exclude the BSD folks and piss off the GNU folks? Say, Free and Open Desktop Conference or some such.
A Historic Moment in Boston (Linux Journal) Posted Oct 17, 2003 1:07 UTC (Fri) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] I agree completely.I'm going to contact FSF to suggest they send a representative, I just thought I'd post it here first. I can see why FSF might not want to endorse an event like this, but they might alternatively see that it this is the sort of event that could really do with an injection of freedom. From reading the DLC site and the conference pages on the associated sites, it looks like effort is being put into hiding the Free nature of this software. Given that it's in the same state as the FSF headquarters, it would be convenient and cheap for them to attend.
hey! Posted Oct 16, 2003 20:13 UTC (Thu) by mattdm (subscriber, #18) [Link] Sponsored by BU? What? How come no one tells me anything around here? *grumble grumble* :)
A Historic Moment in Boston (Linux Journal) Posted Oct 16, 2003 23:44 UTC (Thu) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] This is an awful pity.Desktop software, all GPL/LGPL, that runs on various unices and UNIX-like OSs. The icing on the cake of almost twenty years of hacking. Since 1984, people have been working, often unpaid, to make a completely free OS. And this consortium seems to be embarassed about this. I can't find a mention of freedom, free software, GPL, gnu, etc. anywhere on the site (or the Linux Journal article, or the butrain page). People disagree about naming the OS "GNU/Linux" Vs. "Linux". This isn't about that. This is not about credit. This is simply acknowledging what the software is and why we have it. This is a big step back for the community.
A Historic Moment in Boston (Linux Journal) Posted Oct 17, 2003 13:59 UTC (Fri) by mattdm (subscriber, #18) [Link] It's sponsored by the BU Corporate Ed center, so that defines the target audience somewhat. From my experience, a more effective approach for Capitalist Suits is to get 'em hooked, and *then* they'll see the benefits of Free software. If you start out with the ideological underpinnings, they become suspicious -- not just of Communism and All That, but of free lunches. We can all agree that freedom is important and that we want to get that message across, but there's something to be said for a multi-pronged approach -- with some of the prongs being less sharp and pointy than others.
A Historic Moment in Boston (Linux Journal) Posted Oct 17, 2003 14:51 UTC (Fri) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] Ah, but the "free lunch" aspect of the software is almost impossible to hide. My surprise (an annoyance) is about hiding the freedom. I see freedom as not an ethical benefit, but a practical one. And since none of our big competitors have this benefit, I think they should have shouted it from the rooftops.To a business, freedom to: change vendor, get support from their choice of company, hire a programmer to support an app internally, hire a programmer to fix bugs if/when they arise, etc. are all big practical benefits. The free market affect on support pricing is also good, and so is the lack of lock-in caused by proprietary file formats. The ability to confirm what an app is doing, etc. etc. etc. In essence, I think Free Software is unique in that allows a company to truly own their data. In 1998, we had an attempt to temporarily hide freedom behind the name OpenSource. I believe the implementers were well-meaning, but the result was companys releasing semi-free, or semi-open software, or creating their own individual licenses, many free, but all incompatible. Keeping hush about freedom in the hope that they'll "get it" later on is a bit like extending them credit. From past experience, I don't have faith that they will "get it". In the end it's a judgement call, not necessarily malicious, but I think they made the wrong call.
A Historic Moment in Boston (Linux Journal) Posted Nov 2, 2003 3:06 UTC (Sun) by theBike (guest, #16440) [Link] The sad tale is that linux would never have a ghost of a chance of succeeding on the desktop without the commercial folks who realized whatlinux users never did: that nobody is willing to spend half of their free time wrestling with unix, probably the most user-unfriendly OS ever devised by man. Computers became useful and popular because they became easy to use, via the Mac and Windows. It's a crying shame that all OS's weren't required to present the same interfaces to applications, allowing Windows to become a monopoly that's virtually impossible to compete against. But, on the other hand, I don't want to see linux become a monopoly any more than Windows. Free or not, monopolies are poison for advancements in technolgies or, for that matter, anything else. God forbid that linux becomes a monopoly and its community has to deal with tech proposals. The arguments would stretch clear into infinity.
A Historic Moment in Boston (Linux Journal) Posted Nov 2, 2003 2:51 UTC (Sun) by theBike (guest, #16440) [Link] What do you mean "for the first time in history an alternative..."Ever hear of the Mac? Windows was once upon a time the underdog.
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