----- Original Message -----
From: Alan Pope <alan@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thursday, January 25, 2007 12:03 pm
Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] Battle of the Operating Systems
To: British Ubuntu Talk <ubuntu-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> On Wed, Jan 24, 2007 at 05:49:56PM +0000, London School of
> Puppetry wrote:
> > Hi there, I was talking to friends about Linux (Ubuntu) said
> it was free-
> > then they all look puzzled because they have never paid for it
> ...it comes
> > free with a new computer.....so then what is my answer?
> Caroline>
>
> "Free" has two meanings. "Free of monetary cost" or "free and in
> 'beer'", and "Freedom of use" or "free as in 'speech'".
>
> Windows is neither.
>
> It is not free of monetary cost, small companies pay around $100
> for their Windows license they bundle with the computer you buy,
> larger companies such as Dell pay around $50 for the Windows license.
>
> You pay nothing for Ubuntu - it is free of monetary cost.
>
> The freedoms that the GPL and other licenses give you allows you
> to use the software, copy the software, modify the software and
> make
> derivative versions of the software. You can't do any of that
> with Windows.
>
> They also have further issues with Windows in that it controls
> the way in which they can use their computer. These limitations
> may
> restrict what media they are able to play, and how they can
> manage their media (photos, movies, music etc).
>
> Personally when I talk to people about Linux/Ubunu I stay clear
> of the Free/Libre argument initially because it can become a
> very long
> complex and political discussion. It is one that needs to be
> had, but you can easily get dragged into length semantic
> arguments that
> do not help your cause.
>
> Instead I often use the simple "I use Linux because it does what
> I want", or "I dont use Windows because it doesn't do what I want".
>
> I blogged about this a while ago.
> http://popey.com/Helping_Windows_Users which you may find
> interesting/useful.
> Cheers,
> Al.
>
> --
> ubuntu-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
> https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
>
I guess this is the follow up from the "Battle of the Operating System", 2 vista reviews, 1 open sauce :-p and 1 OSX.
Adam.
