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The Free Software Movement is Barking Up the Wrong Tree

posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday December 26 2017, @07:44PM   Printer-friendly
from the interesting-viewpoints dept.

canopic jug writes:

Joseph Graham has written a very short blog post about software freedom and the direction we might take to achieve it.

The free software movement, founded in the 80s by Richard Stallman and supported by the Free Software Foundations 1, 2, 3, 4, preaches that we need software that gives us access to the code and the copyright permissions to study, modify and redistribute. While I feel this is entirely true, I think it's not the best way to explain Free Software to people.

I think the problem we have is better explained more like this:

"Computer technology is complicated and new. Education about computers is extremely poor among all age groups. Technology companies have taken advantage of this lack of education to brainwash people into accepting absurd abuses of their rights."

Source : The Free Software movement is Barking up the wrong tree

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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday December 26 2017, @08:28PM (6 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Tuesday December 26 2017, @08:28PM (#614420) Homepage Journal

    Coders should ask their aged grandmothers to test their UI

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by tftp on Tuesday December 26 2017, @08:59PM (5 children)

    by tftp (806) on Tuesday December 26 2017, @08:59PM (#614437) Homepage
    Depends on the intended circle of users. The GUI of Photoshop is complex enough to repel most grannies, and still it is good and efficient in hands of a professional.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by nobu_the_bard on Tuesday December 26 2017, @09:25PM (4 children)

      by nobu_the_bard (6373) on Tuesday December 26 2017, @09:25PM (#614454)

      It needs to make sense to a graphics professional because it is well designed for a graphics professional though, not necessarily to someone who is a professional user of that specific software, which just means they're used to the bad UI. I see a lot of people confuse the concepts.

      Case in point: Dwarf Fortress has a terrible UI. Fans are good with it, but it's definitely not because it is intuitive to anyone besides people used to Dwarf Fortress.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 26 2017, @11:07PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 26 2017, @11:07PM (#614485)

        Yup.
        I've got an item in the Pending Stories queue about Cadsoft EAGLE.
        ISTM that it was first developed under DOS.
        It has a noun-verb UI (where Windoze and other modern GUIs have a verb-noun syntax).

        New users find EAGLE to be bass-ackwards.
        Folks who have used it for a while have gotten used to it and forget to mention that weirdness when they recommend it to newbies looking for an ECAD.

        -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

        • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday December 27 2017, @08:27AM (2 children)

          by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday December 27 2017, @08:27AM (#614651) Journal

          GUIs have a syntax? How so?

          --
          The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 27 2017, @11:49AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 27 2017, @11:49AM (#614694)

            Sure. Pull-down menus for example.
            You have to click Edit, or View, or Search (verbs) before you can make another choice.

            In EAGLE, you have to specify what object(s) you want the action to affect before you select a verb.

            -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

            • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday December 27 2017, @02:12PM

              by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday December 27 2017, @02:12PM (#614739) Journal

              Let's see. I want to copy text. I select the text (object), and then I select "Copy" (verb) from the menu. Doesn't fit your description, does it?

              --
              The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.