Re: [OSS] Re: [rms@gnu.org...] + Viet Linux-FAQ

I hope you didn't unsubscribe. In light of the words of a key
leader of the VietNam's entry into the FLO Movement, Tran Luu
Chuong, put it in his presentation to the InfoDev Conference,
Friday Oct. 18, at the World Bank IFC Auditorium, Washington, DC,
http://www.infodev.org/presentations/OpenSource02/chuong.ppt, WE
NEED *YOUR* HELP, MR STALLMAN:

While I live, I will keep working for the computer users' freedom to
cooperate: for free software. However, since my time and effort are
limited, I will contributed them to activities that spread the label
and the ideas of free software, rather than to "open source"
activities.

You referred to a page that would appear to be in Power Point format
(*). That is a secret format which cannot be read with free software.
We can't write free software to read it because Microsoft keeps the
specs secret. Since I cannot actually read the file, please forgive
me for guessing, from the file name, that it asks for some sort of
help in doing something with "open source".

It is ironic that a presentation about the system and the community
built by the free software movement would be published in a secret
format that free software can't access. Ironic, but not unusual when
people use the term "open source" to describe what they do. People
who think of the issue in apolitical "open source" terms can easily
miss the contradiction between these actions and the words. This
shows how, even if "open source" has great success, our community
remains weak.

If you heed the ideas of the free software movement, you would
recognize a contradiction between those ideas and using Power Point
format for publication. Using that format either presumes or
encourages use of Power Point, a non-free program, by other people;
and as a supporter of free software, you would not want to do that.

The open source movement was formed to talk about free software in
apolitical terms, not presenting free software as an ethical
imperative. It is possible to heed the ideas of the open source
movement--which refer only to practical expediency as values--and
believe that publishing in Power Point format is fine and dandy
because it is practically expedient.

This is why I don't participate in designing or executing "open
source" strategies. I devote my effort to the free software movement,
to spreading its ideas and making its name known. I invite you to
join me.

* To verify the file is really in Power Point format, I would have to
send mail to fetch it, and that would delay this response by a day.
I think it is better if I assume that ".ppt" indicates a Power Point
file.

To facilitate co-ordination regarding the introduction of OSS SW in Vietnam

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