I am interested in Linux as I no longer wish to be fleeced by MS into constantly upgrading (unnecessarily, IMO) their expensive software.
I welcome and endorse the idea of freedom of choice in computing (and anything else) and find myself fully allied to the Linux ideals.
The internet has enabled like-minded people to communicate with each other no matter where in the world they are - and amazing things can happen when people get together in a spirit of co-operation. Linux is a superb example what a community can achieve. And all done in with wonderful open-handed generosity.
Andrew Benn
+44 (0)7798 526962 +44 (0)1263 761133
I welcome and endorse the idea of freedom of choice in computing (and anything else) and find myself fully allied to the Linux ideals.
The internet has enabled like-minded people to communicate with each other
no
matter where in the world they are - and amazing things can happen when people get together in a spirit of co-operation. Linux is a superb
example
what a community can achieve. And all done in with wonderful open-handed generosity.
Andrew Benn
+44 (0)7798 526962 +44 (0)1263 761133
Welcome to the list Andrew!
Well said, Linux is indeed a wonderful example of what can be achieved by like-minded people with good intentions in a community as diverse as the internet, where freedom of choice is promoted. And for saying that, I'll disregard your AOL email address *cough* ;)
I hope you find the LUGers as useful as I've found them.
Best Regards Ben Francis
The internet has enabled like-minded people to communicate with each other no matter where in the world they are - and amazing things can happen when people get together in a spirit of co-operation. Linux is a superb example what a community can achieve. And all done in with wonderful open-handed generosity. <<< I'm sure there's a large element of that, but there are other motivations. Such as:
Publicity. You can pay for advertising space or you can give away your IP (Intellectual Property). The former proves you're good at guff; the latter shows what you can do. Most people treat adverts with considerable scepticism anyway, so who's to say which is money better spent?
Revenge. As in, "That's the last time I get shafted by (insert name here)". In my case, when MS updated from Win16 to Win32 and obsoleted all my code overnight.
Barter. You do this for me and I'll do that for you.
Necessity. Have you seen how much it costs to join the .NET game?
But whatever the motivation, the results are often better than commercially-driven equivalents. Someone once said
"All the world's best software was written by teams of two or less."
-- GT
Graham Trott gt@pobox.com wrote:
(Intellectual Property).[...]
If ideas are property, why do we have general education that gives away ideas but asks students to pay for some of their other basic materials?
MJR
From: MJ Ray
Graham Trott gt@pobox.com wrote:
(Intellectual Property).[...]
If ideas are property, why do we have general education that gives away ideas but asks students to pay for some of their other basic materials?
Hmm.. don't we pay for general education via our taxes?
However, you can rightly argue that what we pay for is just the infrastructure (buildings, personnel, books, etc.) not the actual ideas.
Mind you, another thought, aren't the ideas taught in the public domain anyway?
And that's the last I'll say as this is completely off topic for this list.
Keith ____________ Communication is the secret to success... pass it on.
Keith Watson keith.watson@kewill.com wrote:
Hmm.. don't we pay for general education via our taxes?
If this were a normal tax, paid for the general good of the country, it would fund all the materials for education, wouldn't it? Or are we just using taxes to redistribute intellectual property?
However, you can rightly argue that what we pay for is just the infrastructure (buildings, personnel, books, etc.) not the actual ideas.
What do you pay the contact teaching personnel for, if not ideas? Just to be minions policing the process?
Mind you, another thought, aren't the ideas taught in the public domain anyway?
Are they? The syllabus has a copyright on it, as do all the books that are used for teaching, as far as I've seen. No patents, but you can't patent maths here yet. If ideas are property, is public property any less property?
And that's the last I'll say as this is completely off topic for this list.
Yes, computing and discussion of ideas should be kept far apart ;-)
Any more follow up by email off-list...
Andybenn@aol.com Andybenn@aol.com wrote:
The internet has enabled like-minded people to communicate with each other no matter where in the world they are - and amazing things can happen when people get together in a spirit of co-operation. Linux is a superb example
Welcome to the group. The next meeting is Sunday at Syleham, but someone else may well know of other meeting dates that I've currently forgotten.
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Andybenn＠aol.com -
Ben Francis -
Graham Trott -
Keith Watson -
MJ Ray