Re: Facilitating the Integration of Free Software into Academic Courses (was Re: Questions for the board election candidates)

[Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>]

The GNU education team looked at software-carpentry.org and reported
important flaws.  They use the Mac and Windows platforms, and they
include flash videos in their web pages.  These work directly against
users' freedom.

At the philosophical level, they are in the open source camp.  They
use the term open source, and their ideas are the open source ideas
too.  They don't say a word about software freedom.

I think their actions are a reflection of their views.  It is possible
to agree inwardly with the ideas of software freedom but present only
the open source ideas in one's discourse.  This is what Stormy says
she does.  However, most of those who say "open source" are saying
what they really think.  You can find hundreds of projects which
develop a program that is free, but base their actions on open source
ideas, and make secondary decisions in a way that works against
software freedom.  Mozilla and OpenOffice are two examples.

Whatever your thoughts may be, what you say makes a difference.
Inward support for the free software ideas won't lead others if you
don't show it in your words (and actions, of course).

When we work to get academic activities involved with GNOME, let's
take care to lead them away from the path software-carpentry.org chose.


--
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St
Boston MA 02110
USA
www.fsf.org  www.gnu.org
Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software.
  Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call