Thinking of installing Ubuntu on a Netbook we're going to buy as I've heard it's pretty lightweight in comparison to Windows 7. What are your thoughts on this in general? Also, it is free right?
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Anybody up to writing good directory software?
Tue, 2007-02-20 11:17 — David JonathanSince the very beginning, directories (of any kind) have had a very central role in the internet. (I have recently grown fond of Free Web Directory. Even Slashdot can be considered a directory: a collection of great news and invaluable user-generated comments. As far as software is concerned, doing a quick search on Google about software directories will return the free (as in freedom) software directories like Savannah, SourceForge, Freshmeat and so on, followed by shareware and freeware sites such as FileBuzz, PCWin Download Center and All Freeware (great if you're looking for shareware and freeware, but definitely less comprehensive than their free-as-in-freedom counterparts).
Is better education the key to finding better software?
Sat, 2007-03-03 03:25 — Edward RusselI read David Jonathon's article Anybody Up To Writing Good Directory Software? the other day, which got me thinking about software directories in general. As David mentioned, many of the software directories one finds when doing a quick google search are free as in beer, not as in freedom. But what interests me is the software directories that already exist, providing a combination of both free as in beer software, and open source software. Sites such as Freeware Downloads and Shareware Download don't advertise themselves as providing free as in liberty software, but each of them have a good selection of open source software available... if you know where to look.
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stargrave
2 years 13 weeks 6 days 8 hours ago
He is destroying freedom!
I want you to know that I use Ubuntu every day. All of the computers in my house (and there are many of them) use Ubuntu or some relative (like Debian). Not only is it free (as in liberty)
Hm. This guy seems to understand the value of freedom.
But several paragraphs below he recommends us to install (and provides links for that) Flash, Java (I am sure not the free one), patented codecs and Skype. He is describing how to destroy our freedom at once.
lverona
2 years 13 weeks 4 days 14 hours ago
Patented codecs are only bad
Patented codecs are only bad in USA, no? In Europe they do not work, as far as I know.
Also, how do they limit our freedom exactly, those codecs?
stargrave
2 years 13 weeks 4 days 7 hours ago
Re: Patented codecs are only bad
If something does not limit exactly only my freedom -- it does not mean that it won't limit anyone's else. Free software should and must provide ability to use it by all people all over the world. If it limits freedom of US-citizens -- it is not free, however europeans of course can use it freely. If I will install MPEG-codecs in Europe, then of course I can freely make any kind of MPEG file, but I can not share it with my US-friend in most cases. This is very direct example of how patented codecs can limit information sharing and so on, is not it?
Sourceforge began to prohibit access to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. Is it wither normal or acceptable behaviour? Absolutely unethical and anti-hackerish culture it has. However some think that it does not correlate with free software movement and relates only to political side of country. So one can think about patents. I can not agree with everything of that at all.
Free software is for freedom. For freedom minimum at least in Internet. We have to struggle for it.