[GNUz] Fwd: Academics Discuss MS vs. OSS

[Richard Tindall]

Jim Cheetham wrote:

>I removed the (default) limit, which was triggered twice recently, for
>stuff that I didn't see the need to block (almost blocked Roger's one
>after seeing it arrive in CLUG though). This was done mostly to minimise
>the amount of interaction I have to have with the list management
>software :-)
>  
>

Lots of room to play :-)

>It wouldn't be difficult to let you have your own wiki, but as with all
>these things, too-small a community becomes very obvious.
>  
>

Yeah. Hardly worth the effort. A challenge to see us do something 
without one, perhaps.

>Perhaps you should consider explicitly sharing the clug wiki with glu?
>  
>

A week's thought on this. If someone wants to start off, I'll follow.

>That might trigger a discussion about the differences between the two,
>but in any case things like the meeting schedules seem to already be
>shared, and ihmo that's useful.
>  
>

True. I guess what deters me is the prominent champing-at-the-GPL-bit 
internationally. I can see the gains of Creative Commons for sharing 
music, graphics, and other newer media. But for technese documentation 
I'm yet to be convinced that the GFDL does not suffice; viz Wikipedia. 
The OS$ ethic of whittling GNU out of the picture is quite rampant now - 
as people understandably want to build coding careers with autonomy. But 
the short term gain would be long term pain, for not-uniX, if the 
development steam dissipates. Sand, and a line..

For principled and comparative reasons, I think it is worthwhile doing 
everything possible with GNU licensing, while we still can. Proven, 
mature (licensing) tools - the best for the job? Philosophically based, 
not a waste of time.

Working for Software Freedom (10 September: 
http://www.infohelp.co.nz/sfd2.html),

Rik