On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 10:58 AM, pj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Puneet Lakhina <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > one of these friends today has > > asked me for the Windows Vista Home Premium CD so that he can try it out. I > > know its wrong in principal to give him the cd, its license terms deny it, > > and it would amount to software piracy. But if i dont give it, instead of > > understanding these principles, my friend would surely think Im just being > > mean, selfish. > > Where's the dilemma? If he is truly your friend you should point him to > freedom > and free software, and the principles of respecting licences. > > If he disowns you for having principles and for giving him helpful > suggestions > on setting him free, then you should reassess the value of this friendship. >
The worry is more that a simple suggestion to use FOSS may prompt his friend to do nothing at all thus not be helped. As a person who constantly finds himself in a similar muddle, I have found that a show-and-tell approach much better than a simple suggestion to use FOSS. I usually let them use my Ubuntu laptop (replete with eye candy) for a few minutes and they are hooked. On a side note, this may be slightly controversial, it also helps sometimes to use "Ubuntu" without the "Linux". For some strange reason most people have "heard good things about this Ubuntu thing but never actually tried it" but a mention of Linux still evokes the response "But I hate typing out stuff in the command prompt!" -- Anupam _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Next Event: http://freed.in - February 22-24, 2008 Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/
