[Novalug] [Dclug] [FOSE] Starting the discussion

[Serge Wroclawski]

On Sat, Oct 04, 2008 at 07:46:20PM -0400, Rich Goodwin wrote:
> Serge,
> 
> This is one of the discussion topics - what would be the "proper" name
> to use?  While I appreciate the differences between Free Software,
> FLOSS and Open Source, I do not believe those attending FOSE do, will or
> even will care.  

If they won't care then why not simply do the thing that will make everyone happy?

It's kinda like the picnic, if you don't have strong opinions, why not just use the term that both sides can agree on? Do you 
think that using the term Free and Open Source Software, or FLOSS, takes away from Open Source in some way? 

> That said, my intent was to start discussions about what message(s) we
> wish to portray at FOSE.  I will interpret your speaking up to mean we
> should/need to articulate these differences.  

No, I don't think we need to articulate the differences at all. That's not what makes the community. I'm saying use the term 
Free and Open Source Software, or FLOSS. If someone asks, you can say what it is, and if they don't, then you don't have to. 
And you can answer what FLOSS software is without being political by simply stating the functional issues which make it 
Free/Open Source, ie the FSF 4 Freedoms or the OSI description..
> 
>      Free and open source software, also F/OSS, FOSS, or FLOSS (for
>      Free/Libre/Open Source Software) is software which is liberally
>      licensed to grant the right of users to study, change, and
>      improve its design through the availability of its source code.
> 
> 
> As for the Linux/Windows/Mac/OpenBSD ... this is something we need to
> nail down.  What should the message be from the booth?  I was pointing
> out that past events included more than Linux - OpenBSD and others I
> think participated.  A number of folks mentioned that we should be
> including FLOSS for Windows.  Personally, I agree.  WINOSSCDROM
> (http://www.winosscdrom.com/) is a great example.  I was in contact Rich
> Houston for the NetCaucus for this very reason.  I will 

My .02 is that with this type of audience, in a show environent, you have a pretty limited environment to work in. It's true 
when I went to FOSE, long conversations came out of it, but at the end of the day, they won't remember much. It's better to 
demo cool stuff and get them running on a LiveCD than try to explain anything.

But at the same time, we now have big vendors pushing distributions on the server and desktop, which is why I'm asking who the 
audience is here that you want to target.

- Serge