While open source offers great features and flexibility the total cost of ownership issue can still result in choosing a different path sometimes.
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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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trombonechamp
2 years 12 weeks 2 days 11 hours ago
???
Okay, maybe I'm missing something here, but could somebody please explain to me what this has to do with software freedom? Isn't this site supposed to be a news site for people who use free software? There is enough "open source" stuff on this site to begin with, but this goes one step too far.
Is this article really appropriate for this site?
knowing-card
2 years 12 weeks 2 days 3 hours ago
Relevance
I think if it is free software related and might of interest to the free software community - even if it's anti-foss - then it is appropriate for this site. We want to be kept informed about what people are saying about foss... yes?
aboutblank
2 years 12 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago
re: ???
I do usually tolerate articles of open source because it is usual for them to not promote the use of proprietary software - I don't really mind the fact they don't actively promote freedom. As for me, this particular article is worthless as it does nothing to promote freedom.
I do draw my line at things that exist to mostly promote proprietary software or have absolutely no direct link to the free community or open source. My standards for failing this are high. In spite of that, I often see articles that fail this, such as the many reports on Microsoft that have no explicit link to show how the free software community will benefit or be hindered. Any link that may exist is often implied in the form of the unstated premise.
knowing-card
2 years 12 weeks 1 day 3 hours ago
I understand your point of
I understand your point of view... but! Consider this:
Articles like:
* promote proprietary software over free software
* confuse open source and free software
* spread fud about free software
* promote free as in gratis over free as in freedom
Might not seem appropriate for FSDaily. However, submitting them here, means:
* We are kept aware of what is being said against free software and who is saying it.
* We are given an opportunity to respond by voting, commenting, or writing responses on our own blogs or FSDaily's blog.
But what seems to be overlooked is that FSDaily's links to articles are very often higher ranked in search engine results than the original articles. This means people will often see our comments about the article before they read the original article. In my opinion, that's an extremely good reason to see those articles here on FSDaily.
If you, as a member of the community, don't like an article you can vote it down. But, if you vote it down, you really should say why you are doing so in a comment. And, just saying the article doesn't belong here or complaining about the user who submitted it is not helpful. Saying what you don't like about the article is!
You really need to consider that for every savvy reader out there that would immediately know why the article is bad, there would be 100s if not 1000s of readers who would not understand that the article is bad.
trombonechamp
2 years 12 weeks 1 day 3 hours ago
It would be easier to
It would be easier to understand the argument that this article is to keep free software supporters "in the loop" about what people say if it was submitted to the "Opposition" category instead of the "Community" category.
Free software is about the philosophies behind the software, not just the software itself. If you want to gossip about the software, maybe you should read LXer. I am not degrading LXer (in fact, I read it myself) however LXer is an open source new site; this is a free software news site. They have different expectations.
I, like others, read this site because I already know I support free software. If you were a vegetarian, would you enjoy reading articles about the health problems associated with being vegetarian on a vegetarian recipe site?
Also, you mentioned "complaining". Did aboutblank or I come across as offensive to you?
knowing-card
2 years 12 weeks 23 hours 4 min ago
FOSS not just free software
From FSDaily's about page:
"This site is designed to provide members of the free and open source software (FOSS) community with news and articles that are of interest to them."
Emphasis is mine.
And no I didn't find your remarks offensive. I just thought that there is a valid reason for including these articles on FSDaily. However, I agree that it probably should have gone in the opposition section.
Oh and your analogy about vegetarians doesn't really work because I think many vegetarians (especially animal rights activists) would be interested in seeing stories about the meat industry attacking vegetarianism and would want to know what fud was being spread about being vegetarian so they could respond.
aboutblank
2 years 12 weeks 5 hours 16 min ago
> You really need to
> You really need to consider that for every savvy reader out there that would immediately know why the article is bad, there would be 100s if not 1000s of readers who would not understand that the article is bad.
I'm fine with letting any article stay if there is an explicit link to show how the FOSS community will benefit or be hindered. Articles that support proprietary software, or digital restrictions, or government censorship, or whatever are fine for as long as this link exists. Many articles do not portray this link. There is often no commentary by anybody to support this link. This is the reason why I vote articles down.
Don't rely on the reader to understand the issues based on unstated premises. Make the link to the FOSS community explicit.
knowing-card
2 years 12 weeks 1 hour 4 min ago
That's why people need to comment
If you vote a submitted article down, that doesn't mean it won't gain page rank from FSDaily. That means people may still find the submission and while it may have less votes because you voted it down it doesn't mean they will know why it's bad or wrong or whatever. If you are going to vote a submission down I really think you should say why.
However, I'm speaking generally and not targeting you specifically because I notice that you often do comment. I appreciate that because I can decide not to read the article or vote it down myself. And, if I do go and read the article, I know what to expect.