[Fsfe-ie] stuff from the past week

[adam beecher]

> This needs to be stated explicitly:
> My intention is to help found an FS org.
>
This is fine, and since I release some of my code under the GPL, if there
was anything I could do to help I would. However I'm far from a free
software purist, I respect the decision of some software developers to
monetise their skills without having to balance their future on something as
unreliable as "support" (or worse, options). If the source code of their
applications is available /to me/, I consider it free and open to an
appreciable degree. Ireland's size is another factor, but I have to defer to
Jimmy O'Regan for putting it much better than I could:

---
> As I said, there's no One True Meaning of Free (the examples were meant
> merely as illustrations of this) - there are going to be squabbles no
> matter what. An organisation that sets out to promote only free software
> is going to face more difficulty than an organisation promoting open
> source, or an organisation promoting both; open source has mind share,
> and a larger amount of people willing to promote it.
>
> If a set of common goals can be found, which people agree are important
> enough, then most people will be willing to toe a party line to achive
> them; and split hairs kept to a minimum. Aside from FS vs OSS, there's
> Linux vs GNU/Linux; [GNU/]Linux vs BSD etc. (If you can split atoms, it
> gives more ways to split hairs :) The goals you mentioned are important,
> and it should be easy enough to rally together several disparate groups
> around them.
---

You sound like you've decided the route you're going to take however, and
that's fine. I don't have time to dedicate to a developer collective and you
do, so more power to you for going ahead with it. Each to his or her own.

> An Irish EFF would be great, there is definitely a need for both
> organisations.  I read about that EFF attempt in the
> freedom at lists.beecher.net list archives but got no response when I
> mailed the guy who seemed to be leading it.
>
I guess that would have been me. I don't remember getting an email from you
at the time, but that doesn't say a whole lot. All we had done at that stage
was meet up and have a(n interesting) chat in the lobby of some hotel, and
it sort of fizzled out after that. I tried to kick things up a little a
couple of times, but there was a mailing list and a forum, and things were
fragmented. Par for the course.

> If such a group is being set up, please mention it on this list, and
> if you're in Dublin on Nov 13th, it would be great if you could drop
> into the fsfe-ie meeting.  Or if Nov 13th is no good, we could hold an
> extra meeting if you're interested.
>
It's unlikely I'll get to Dublin before the weekend of the 28th, but if I do
I'll let the list know.

adam