[Tfug] Pleasurable distraction

[Claude Rubinson]

On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 10:41:14AM -0700, sitkaa at email.arizona.edu wrote:
> The idea getting some of my creative energies into the open source community
> really intrigues me. I have so many ideas for how to help this world, even
> focussing on one of them would be an immense relief.

It seems to me that there are essentially two reasons that people get
involved in the free software/open source community: ideology and
pragmatism.  These, of course, are not mutually exclusive.  The
pragmatic reason to use free software is because it's better than
proprietary software (where better is defined not only as the quality
and capabilities of the program itself but also the knowledge that you
control your data).  Ideological motivations can be negative ("I hate
Microsoft") or positive ("The values of the free software movement are
in line with my values.")

>From your emails, it sounds like your motivation is ideological --
both anti-Microsoft and pro-free software.  What you want to read,
then, are the writings by Stallman and the Free Software Foundation.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/.

> I have always just assumed that I would have to program in order to
> contribute.  Is there other stuff todo for the open source
> community?

Certainly.  One of the simplest and best things to do is to use the
software and report any bugs that you find.  We're also in desperate
need of people to write documentation, design artwork, and organize
more parties.  Volunteer at World Care, come out to happy hour.  There
are literally hundreds of things that anyone can do but to figure out
what that is, you need to join a community, find out what their needs
are, and make it happen.  For example, people periodically talk about
revamping TFUG's website but it hasn't happened since nobody's stepped
up to organize it.

> Would I have to work in linux, or would a cross-platform kinda thing
> work better? How do ya do that?

Unfortunately, nobody will really be able to answer that without
getting to know you better.  What's wonderful about free software is
that there are so many choices.  But, that comes at the expense of
having to make a choice.  And that can be difficult.

One of my officemates, for example, has always been intrigued by Unix
and, in particular, LaTeX (because my documents are always so
gorgeous).  He hears and sees how powerful the Unix environment is but
he can't afford to switch over because of the enormous startup costs.
The solution?  I had him install Cygwin on his machine so that he can
dip his toes into the Unix world without having to go whole hog.  He
now writes his syllabi and some other documents in LaTeX and is slowly
learning bash to handle some rudimentary tasks.

Another officemate of mine is dating Chris, from TFUG.  Chris saw that
she was having lots of problems with her Windows setup, including
malware, virii, etc.  After inquiring as to her needs, he set her
notebook up as a dual boot.  She's been using Ubuntu for about a week
and has only had a couple of glitches.

For the few times that I absolutely must run a Windows program, I do
it from within qemu -- a virtual machine.  So there are literally
dozens of ways to get into the pool -- but it's a matter of figuring out
what your needs are, which can be rather difficult.

> What about intellectual property rights? If you produce something for free
> consumption, how can you make sure it stays as intended?

That's precisely why Stallman invented the GPL.  Again, read the
philosophy and history of the FSF.

> Once you start something, will it continue without your persistant
> guidance. For instance, has this list (TFUG) been passed on from one
> lead person to another, or does it have a single lead person?

TFUG is basically anarchic.  People volunteer their time, energy, and
a little money to maintain the website, the mailing list, and organize
events.  Like most of the FOSS world, the basic principle is "do it
yourself or don't complain."  So TFUG will continue to persist as long
as there are people willing to maintain the various activities.

[It strikes me that this sentiment of "do it yourself" might be the
biggest stumbling block for people coming from the world of
proprietary software.  The FOSS world is a community and, like all
communities, implies mutual obligation.  The world of proprietary
software, on the other hand, involves clients, customers, and the
associated transactions which encourage a sense of entitlement.  E.g.,
"I paid for this application and therefore it should work."  But
that's not how the FOSS world is.  This is a bit inarticulate and not
well thought out.  The germ of a thought.]

Claude