
FSF Petition for Freedom in Education - gtsnexp
https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/sign-this-petition-for-freedom-in-the-classroom
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mark_l_watson
I up-voted this because I agree that large institutions should have the
resources to not use Zoom/Meetings/etc. and should use open standards instead.

That said, I think it is fine for individuals to use one of the proprietary
video platforms to talk with their parents, etc. I think organizations should
be held to higher standards than individuals who are juggling getting work
done, maintaining family and friends, etc.

I dropped my paid membership to the FSF a few years ago because in my own
lifestyle I rely on closed platforms like Apple Watch + AirPods, etc. to
enhance my life. I release software under open source licenses (I favor dual
LGPL and Apache 2 licensing) and the books I write, even though I charge for
them, are released under a Creative Commons license so (with some
restrictions) people can share them.

Anyway, I find it a tricky balance between software and information freedom
vs. friction free life.

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PaulHoule
The Orwellian statement "Freedom is Slavery" applies to the EFF and FSF more
than any domain I've seen.

Like it or not, the Apple 1984 ad was all about how computers oppress people
by exposing their innards: talk to business people and they will say you "get
your hands dirty" if you spend any time reconciling the contradictory mess of
desires people have with a computer's ability to show you the logical outcome
of that contradictory opinion. In the U.S. they will give that job to an
Indian, and the Indian would give the job to a Dahlit if they let Dahlits get
an education enough to do it.

People don't remember that the Mac was the first computer that didn't come
with BASIC or some other tool that would let you program it. We learned the
hard way in the next 30 years that the computer programs you whether or not
you can program it...

So when people like the "FSF" describe what they think of as "Freedom", most
people think that is being a slave to the transistor and mathematics. What the
"FSF" describes as "Slavery" is perceived by neurotypicals as "Freedom to let
somebody else Slave on your behalf"

~~~
gtsnexp
Your statement about the Mac not shipping with BASIC is incorrect. Basic
interpreters were available by default since the Apple II.

~~~
PaulHoule
The Apple ][ has two BASIC interpreters (the integer basic Woz wrote and the
Applesoft basic licensed from Microsoft.)

The original Mac was a demo -- with 128MB of RAM it struggled to do anything
at all, with 512MB you had some room to work with. Original development for a
mac was done on a different computer.

There was no compatibility between the Apple ][ and the Mac. Apple did not
realize how long the ][ would last. If they'd known that, and known that
Motorola was going to abandon the 68k, they might have come out with something
like this earlier:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIGS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIGS)

which could have evolved an entirely different direction and avoided more than
one of the near death experiences the Mac went through.

~~~
gtsnexp
Thanks for the detailed reply.I still fail to see your point and it's relation
to software freedom.

