Comments on: Do we have a say in who uses Free software?

By: Kangarooo

Kangarooo — Tue, 25 May 2010 00:31:45 +0000

u r feminist? so u a woman? cool

By: Lyssa

Lyssa — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:49:16 +0000

Forgive me but how do you throw in conservative, which is a political opinion that does not imply ANY hate mongering into a group of words which denote hate mongers? Perhaps next you will
suggest all socialists brutalize children? Sounds like you have some extreme biases there yourself against a term simply defined as being against unnecessary change in government.

By: Adam C. Sieracki

Adam C. Sieracki — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:51:01 +0000

There is a distro called ‘Muslimubuntu’. Ditto for its Christian counterpart. I’m sure, whatever Mark Shuttleworth’s political opinions are, he doesn’t really give a hoot over who uses the *buntu branding (as opposed to the GPL GNU/Linux code).

I’m appalled at things like suicide bombing, antisemitism, the brutal persecution of non-Muslims (Baha’is, &c.) and dhimmitude, gender apartheit, Islamic clothing, female genital mutillation, sexual violence against women and pederasty, Salafi support for terrorism (which lead to mass murders on 9/11 and 7/7), Islamic honour killings in Canada, the foiled terrorist plot in Toronto, the current events in Iran and Sudan, and so forth–all MUSLIM problems, whether the PC types care to admit it, or not. However, this won’t make me think that Muslims using an Ubuntu derivative somehow taints the Xubuntu installation on my computer.

One reason, though, to avoid distros like Mint is that they’re really one-man jobs. Ditto for things like the Reiser filesystem…and we all know what happened THERE. Corporate-backed distros (I’m including Debian here–it’s still a not-for-profit corporate entity) offer a better level of stability. Of course, the Linux kernel is run as a dictatorship. Torvalds’ boneheaded endorsment of B.O. (no friend of Open Source software–Micturatingsloth funded his campaign AND inauguration, and got that juicy $20B porkbarrel medical records programme as a present)…

By: armornick

armornick — Sat, 16 May 2009 16:19:55 +0000

I agree with you. I’ve learned the hard way that people don’t always have the same opinion. This is what makes the world fun. It’s the reason so many different kinds of things exist. It’s the reason there are so many Linux distros. I think it’s really important that people are allowed to speak how they feel. Sure, I think it’s horrible, but I’ve never even told someone with neo-nazistic beliefs to ‘stfu’ (note: violence is something entirely different). And in this day and age, everyone should have the right to freely use a computer and the software that comes with it. Isn’t this the reason the FOSS-movement was created in the first place?

@Mojo: don’t mean to be a dickhead, but € 0.2 is twenty cents.

By: Mojo

Mojo — Sun, 10 May 2009 14:26:34 +0000

“I don’t think I would ever post a blog saying racist, antifeminist, anti-Christian, conservative, warmongering homophobes are not welcome”.

Go on, post one, just for the fun of it. ;)

However, I’m not any of those things, nor am I a Christian and nor do I love everybody, nor hate anyone – I am just me and as me I’m stopping by simply to say thanks for your tutorials, the one re. where to find and put the non-free repository url’s was exactly the info I was looking for.

So, thanks. :)

I will briefly add my €0.2c regarding the above discussion, just to contribute to the conversation; If something (in this case software) is ‘for everyoone’, then that’s who it is for. There can be no grey area, and no judgements can be made on the personalities using the software for whatever they want, no matter how odious others may think the use is.

Any other way and that software is no longer for ‘everyone’, it’s just for who is ‘allowed’ it. Simple as that, IMHO.

See ya, and thanks again for the tutorials!

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:36:25 +0000

I think the issue is more serious then it seems. Despite of the post being removed from the Mint blog, it is now on Clem’s personal blog, and the stance remains.
http://eclelef.blogspot.com/2009/05/palestine_03.html
The question is, would Clem be able to separate his political views from Linux Mint on a personal level.
The apology posted is acceptable, but it remains to be seen how the community and the distro are affected. Would Clem be reluctant to accept bug reports, patches or donations by Israel’s supporters? It’s amazing how a few words can poison the air.

By: themcp

themcp — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:41:40 +0000

they don’t call it “free as in speech” for nuthin’.

By: ghindo

ghindo — Tue, 05 May 2009 06:12:05 +0000

I was actually just thinking about this topic earlier this week. Interesting stuff.

By: Bradley J. Fikes

Bradley J. Fikes — Tue, 05 May 2009 05:20:08 +0000

Clement Lefebvre evidently views Linux Mint as his property. And no one else on the Linux Mint team has disavowed his statements. So it really does appear Lefebvre’s hostility to Israel is Linux Mint policy, and those who disagree with him are not welcome.

I just removed Linux Mint from two computers (including the one I am using to write this), and replaced them with Ubuntu, a mercifully non-political Linux distro I don’t have to feel slimy about using.

By: landon

landon — Tue, 05 May 2009 02:17:53 +0000

To your basic point, I thought the OSD was pretty clear that no one could be restricted from using any software that claims to be open source.

To your deeper point – right on.