Re: Want to review a book about GNOME 3?
I was wondering if you have to encouraging anyone to buy a book about GNOME from anywhere, and not just Amazon. There are two separate issues here: free manuals, and Amazon. For the sake of free software, we must not recommend non-free manuals. The issue of free manuals, like the issue of free software, is about users' freedom, not about price. It's free as in freedom. Selling manuals is ok as long as they are free/libre/elefthero. The FSF sells copies of free manuals, and some companies do too. Amazon is a separate issue. http://stallman.org/amazon.html explains why I think it is bad to recommend buying from Amazon. That is only my personal position -- the GNU Project doesn't have a position on this issue -- but I hope that some of you will share my concerns. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org www.gnu.org Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software. Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Want to review a book about GNOME 3?
FWIW, in my first email back to Packt I requested that they consider releasing this under a free license. Based on the response, I'm a little unclear about what the license terms are but I suppose it will be cleared up when we get the sample copies. I suggest you press them on this without delay -- don't wait to receive sample copies, because by then it could be harder to change anything, and they might use that as an excuse not to consider the issue. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org www.gnu.org Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software. Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Want to review a book about GNOME 3?
1. A development guide tells you how-to use many different FOSS products with explanation on how they will work together to help the reader create more free software. That is a kind of manual. Any book that explains how to use some software is a manual. One kind of manual is a _reference manual_ which explain all the details of each construct or command. But documentation to teach a beginner the basic use of a program is a manual too. My two cents is that going by the rule of free works and their derivatives must also be free, the author should consider releasing the book under a free license and to be fair to the effort the author has put in, he should charge a fee for the hardcopy/printed/paper edition. If he releases the book under a free license, he can sell copies, and we should encourage people to buy copies. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org www.gnu.org Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software. Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Want to review a book about GNOME 3?
It looks like this book is a sort of manual for GNOME 3. If so, what is the license of the book? Is it free? The messages don't say. Manuals should be free, and free software especially needs free manuals (see http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-doc.html). Part of our mission is to educate people that nonfree manuals are part of the problem; thus, it is important not to present a nonfree manual as if it were a good thing. Please don't help anyone write or sell nonfree manuals for GNOME. (Or for anything else.) -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org www.gnu.org Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software. Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Want to review a book about GNOME 3?
If it is going to be sold via Amazon, GNOME might want to look into the Amazon non-profit affiliates program. Please don't encourage anyone to buy from Amazon. See stallman.org/amazon.html for the many bad things that Amazon does -- to independent book stores, publishers, authors, its workers, and its customers. Amazon e-books are particularly hostile to readers' freedom: see stallman.org/ebooks.pdf. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org www.gnu.org Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software. Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Submitted GNOME booth for LinuxTag 2012
Since the event is named LinuxTag, I hope who ever speaks about GNOME will put in a word for the GNU operating system. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org www.gnu.org Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software. Use free telephony http://directory.fsf.org/category/tel/ -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: New GNOME.Asia Summit website launched
I think this was already covered by Frederic in http://mail.gnome.org/archives/marketing-list/2011-March/msg00147.html The message you cited is one I've already responded to on this list on March 23. (Search for People who think they are synonymous have misunderstood the substance.) by asking for a concrete proposal. I'm trying to be flexible and work with the rest of you, but I can offer specific proposals too. How about these: Boost your business in Freedom, with Free Software Free your business with Free Software Or swatantra, in honor of India? I'd rather see the complete website translated instead of some single words to some languages as a surprise in the English version. That was a concrete suggestion for one way to express the idea that it's free-as-in-freedom. Here's another. Make a background image with a repeating text that says Free as in freedom. It would say this in small letters, in light gray on white so it looks like a watermark and doesn't interfere with reading other text. Repeating every inch vertically, and every two inches, horizontally, like this: Free as in freedom Free as in freedomFree as in freedom Free as in freedom Free as in freedomFree as in freedom Free as in freedom Free as in freedomFree as in freedom Free as in freedom Free as in freedomFree as in freedom I am neither a graphics designer nor an expert on HTML, Someone who understands those things better might see a far better way. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org, www.gnu.org Skype: I won't use it, because it's freedom-denying software. -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: New GNOME.Asia Summit website launched
I picked Boost your business with Free Software Thanks. That makes free software fairly prominent in the event. Can we fit freedom in there somehow? Or swatantra, in honor of India? Either one would make it clearer that free doesn't mean gratis. which unfortunately removes GNOME from the slogan Not to worry. The most prominent piece of the event's PR is its name, and that's where you say it is about GNOME. This slogan's purpose is to say what GNOME stands for -- such as Free Software. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org, www.gnu.org Skype: Don't use Skype, it's proprietary software! -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: New GNOME.Asia Summit website launched
While I think you have a strong point about the missing message about GNOME and free software I believe a lot of people outside of the US (at least) use the expression 'Open Source' as a synonym of Free Software. People who think they are synonymous have misunderstood the substance of either free software or open source. In my experience, most often they have misunderstood the substance of free software. They have heard the idea labeled open source and they think that free software is the same idea. Teaching them the truth about this is a high priority for us. We want them to know what free software really stands for. First we have to show them it is not the same as opensource. I prefer to unite the potentially 2 communities (assuming they are split). They aren't two communities -- they are two philosophical camps within one community. Sometimes they can work together, but they can't unite unless people change their views. We might wish to convince all open source supporters to change their views, but realistically speaking it is not likely they will. Please set up your site to help educate viewers about free software and what it stands for. I would be happy to hear how you would advertise in 4/5 words the session where we're trying to encourage local IT services companies to embrace free software and show them that they can run a business around it? How about... Run Your Business on Freedom Your Business deserves Freedom too -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org, www.gnu.org Skype: Don't use Skype, it's proprietary software! -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: New GNOME.Asia Summit website launched
I looked at the home page. The sponsors get more screen area than GNOME. This seems like an event to promote them more than an event to promote GNOME. The top line uses the word monetize -- a word that carries the worst fashion of today's usual mercenary attitude -- but says nothing about freedom. It does say free software, but in that context people are likely to suppose that free means gratis, and there is nothing on the home page to tell them otherwise. There needs to be something on the home page that clearly refers to freedom and shows that free means freedom. The way that I can think of is to have a graphic with various words for free: ziyou, jiyuu-na, tu do, swatantra, mukt, etc., as well as free itself. (This method is somewhat trite, so it would be nice to think of something more creative.) I looked at Who Should Attend page. It mentions 5 goals, and all those goals are good, but the most important goal -- freedom on your computer -- is missing. The page says FLOSS a few times, and free and open source once. To fully promote free software, it should always say free/libre or free/swatantra. Mentioning open source is a distraction here, so that term shouldn't be present. I looked at the speakers page. I was glad to see that you're giving a talk about software freedom. However, for each person who attends your talk, a thousand will view the home page. We need to get the message of freedom into the home page so that thousands will see it. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org, www.gnu.org Skype: Don't use Skype, it's proprietary software! -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Reboot: Strategic goals for GNOME
It is not a matter of ostracizing anyone. We are glad that they use GNOME, but we must not say we are entirely happy about them as long as they contain non-free programs. But we are closely associated with these organizations. (Your original email said we should make sure we are not closely associated with them.) You're right about that, so I should clarify what I said. Accepting support and contributions of code from those companies is fine. Working closely with them on development of free software is good when it advances GNOME in general. What's a problem is if we are seen as endorsing non-free products. Thus, we should not express pride in these companies (in a general sense). Developing proprietary software is not just a foible -- it is the problem which GNOME exists to help solve. Yes, we can work with companies that distribute proprietary software, but we must avoid giving the impression we don't think that is bad. -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Reboot: Strategic goals for GNOME
Maemo/Moblin/MeeGo use GNOME and we are proud of that. Of course, we always encourage organizations and projects to use more free software but we should not ostracise them because they don't use 100% free software. It is not a matter of ostracizing anyone. We are glad that they use GNOME, but we must not say we are entirely happy about them as long as they contain non-free programs. -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Reboot: Strategic goals for GNOME
GNOME needs a metric of success. Years ago it was 10x10, which is ridiculous today as it was when it was first proposed. But it reveals an implicit assumption: more users == success. We need a firm statement from the foundation on this. Is it possible that easier to use and more productive than either Windows or MacOS == success? I think it would be a mistake to equate success with more users. More users tends to be a sign of success, but it isn't success. Theoretically, success is a matter of contribution to the free software community. But that is hard to estimate, so we have to judge by things we can see. Namely, how well GNOME enables a free operating system to meet its GUI-related goals. I think the main practical goals for a GUI are: * Self-evidence or naturalness. * Ease of use (for the system as a whole) * Consistency (of the system as a whole). * Ease of looking under the hood (for someone who knows more about the system and wants to understand how GNOME relates to it). Consistency of the system as a whole would benefit if GNOME and KDE had the same default key and mouse bindings, and perhaps a common graphical way to configure changes in those bindings. That might be a goal for GNOME 4. I also suggest storing the user's configuration data in an ASCII format, so that you can read it into any text editor and see what it says. This change might have no visible effect on the graphical interfaces of GNOME -- it could be purely internal. But when a user wants to look under the hood to investigate a problem, this change would make that a lot easier to do. -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
Re: Reboot: Strategic goals for GNOME
Proposed project vision: Hidden in plain sight: Everyone using GNOME, no-one noticing This proposed goal might be ill-advised, because it's very good to be noticed if one do something good. Especially for a project that needs to attract support from people. We probably could have had moblin be GNOME Netbook. We probably could have had Maemo be GNOME Smartphone. Or Sugar be GNOME Education. It is fine if they promote GNOME, but remember that Maemo contains non-free software, so we wouldn't want GNOME to be too closely associated with it. Sugar is a good thing, but it is a different interface -- is it connected with GNOME? -- marketing-list mailing list marketing-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
