Re: Reboot: Strategic goals for GNOME

["Lefty (石鏡 )" <lefty shugendo org>]

On 3/4/10 6:08 PM, "Liam R E Quin" <liam holoweb net> wrote:
> On Thu, 2010-03-04 at 17:45 -0800, Lefty ( 亢À ) wrote:
> 
>> In any case, I'm under the impression that a search warrant or similar order
>> is generally required in the US to get information regardless of whether
>> it's from a hosted service or from your personal computer; certainly the
>> police can't simply call up Facebook and ask for information on random
>> people and expect to get it.
>
> They can and they do, as has been widely covered by the media.

Well, given this wide coverage, which I've somehow completely missed, there
shouldn't be much challenge to your producing an actual citation to support
the existence of this kind of activity (specifically Facebook handing over
information on users to law enforcement without a subpoena or a warrant).

I only ask because it seems in complete contradiction to their stated
privacy policy.

>> The vast majority of people who use computers--and I'm not referring to
>> people who download source and build their own versions of things--are quite
>> happy to, for example, have Wordpress or Livejournal maintain their blogs
>> for them, and there's absolutely no reason for them to attempt to host it
>> themselves.
> 
> They are also happy to use Microsoft Word, and other proprietary
> software. But that does not mean we should abandon GNOME.
> Instead, we need to make it easier for people to follow the more
> open path.

Nobody's suggested that anyone "abandon GNOME".

In the case of Microsoft Word, there are credible and workable open source
alternatives readily available. In the case of a Wordpress blog that one
doesn't have to host and administer on one's own (along with the overhead of
maintaining a domain registration, a web server, security issues, etc.), or
a Livejournal, or a Flickr site, or Facebook, there's no alternative that we
can offer, other than "Don't do that!", it would seem. Correct me if you
feel I'm mistaken here.

I don't see "Don't do that! Do whatever you can manage from your personal
computer as best you can" as being a terribly compelling message, myself.
Rather than making it "easier for people for follow the more open path", you
encourage them to find other means to do the things they _want_ to do.