Re: [OSS] Re: [rms@gnu.org...] + TL Chuong Freed! ;)))

Thank you kindly for such a considerate and timely reply, Mr Stallman.

A bit late here. Re the Power Poin file, uh, duh, i should have known
better. This might fix things up: An HTML slideshow of Dr Chuong's
InfoDev presentation, generated from an OpenOffice1.0 conversion
of the original ppt, now situ'd for your casual perusal, here:
http://h0lug.sourceforge.net/00.viet/fl0@vnisbiz/02flohow/.

Please do give it a vidi. Dr Chuong provided a great
overview of the GNU/Linux & OSS situ here. Roblimo
(cc'd) even caught up with Dr Chuong after his
slide show and wrote up a landmark InfoDev
yarn i razzed him about before eating my
words <again - sigh(gone) ;)>. Rob's
article can still be found at the
'Forge - http://newsforge.com/newsforge/02/10/23/0049208.shtml?tid=19

I get that word-wrap down yet?

Anyway, tanx again, tonnes.

More soon than later,
ADzzzzzzzzzz...

At 22:21 2003.01.30, Richard Stallman wrote:
> 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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