Re: Thanks, and a Brief Survey

["Lefty (石鏡 )" <lefty shugendo org>]

On 1/15/10 1:05 PM, "Alan Cox" <alan lxorguk ukuu org uk> wrote:
>
>> 2. not legitimate; not sanctioned by law or custom.
> 
> I don't see what the fuss is about.

I don't know that there _is_ a "fuss". That's one of the things I hope to
determine via the survey.
 
> "Not sanctioned by custom" precisely describes Richard Stallman's belief
> that Free Software as a concept does not include considering proprietary
> software as acceptable in most cases.

I understand that. What I'm interested in, however, is the degree to which
that belief is reflected in the community. It's an open question, in my
mind, whether this view is, in fact, "customary" in the broader community.
Early results would seem to suggest otherwise.

If, in fact?as the survey results apparently show?among the virtually 100%
of respondents who use free/etc. software on their own time, about
two-thirds also use proprietary software on their own time (i.e. by their
own choice), this would seem to suggest that the actual "custom" may be
rather different than what it's being represented to be.

> The EU uses "Free, Libre and Open Source Software " when it wants to talk
> about the general space and ensure that the usual misinterpretations of
> 'free' do not occur and that nobody is offended, mislabeled or wastes all
> their meeting time with stupid arguments.

I provided "FLOSS" as a choice, as well as "FOSS" and "Other", with a
comments box. I don't want anyone to feel as though they're unrepresented.