On Sat, 2005-07-02 at 15:50 -0400, Martyn wrote: > Is it just me, or did it rile anyone else that Mr Gates appeared on Live8? > > I didn't catch his entire "speech", but to me, it just gets my goat that > someone whos company spends such an amount on advertising products, > spreading FUD about Free alternatives to expensive software which keeps > people in poverty or piracy is claiming to be against poverty. > > I can appreciate that the big names lending their support might impact > on the G8, but to me it just reeks of a publicity stunt to make people > think that M$ actually have morals. > > Just wondering if we can use this two-facedness in pro-FS literature, > and felt like a bit of a rant, hope noone minds.
Two things immediately leaped out at me relating to Live8 and Free Software. First was the sound bite from Bill Gates: "if you show people the problems and you show people the solutions they will be moved to act" it came across as a wonderful one to use for free software (although the original context may make this a little tricky). The problems - unreliable and insecure software, tied in to single source, high cost of entry for developing countries, etc., etc.; the solutions - free software, Linux, BSD, etc. ;) The second one was when I looked at the downloads section of the live8live.com site. They have the option to download a video or audio (not sure, this wasn't clear) of a couple of the songs performed (first and last with Paul McCartney I think). The trouble is since I don't use Windows and don't have Windows Media Player I was completely scuppered - well according to the text I am, it may be possible to download and use the files, but there's no further details. On one hand not a cause to use to make a point, on the other hand could they have raised more by making it more open to more people (although raising awareness not money is the stated aim). -- Paul Tansom | Aptanet Ltd. | http://www.aptanet.com/ _______________________________________________ Fsfe-uk mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfe-uk
