RE: Non - Linux - But good article

Hi Amy,

Clearly,my comments were not addressing the article itself.

Your views are welcome, but Fred is also probably right that the real issue 
is whether the list is a space for the expression of political views that 
are not technically related to Linux or OS issues.

There are plenty of Linux related political issues for those interested in 
advocacy:

Despite all the open source "advocacy" of the Chinese government, many 
government websites are only MS compliant, not standards compliant.   This 
creates problems in accessing information from OS browsers such as Mozilla.

Writing tax receipts (fapiao) requires (unless there are alternatives that 
I am not aware of) the use of software that only runs on MS windows.  There 
are other "official" issues that similarly require that you have MSW installed.

There are also China specific graphic file formats that are, so far as I 
know, only supported in MSW.

If China adopts its own wifi and other standards, who is going to write the 
linux drivers?  Will information be made available to enable drivers to be 
written?

etc etc.

At 10:26 AM 31/03/2004 +0800, you wrote:
>the point was not about the article but the comments in the email... I guess
>I was not clear enough.
>Besides this is a Linux group and not a Freedom of speech group. I remember
>not so long ago the issue being raised about sticking to Linux/Open source
>subject.... so why not anymore?
>
>Fred
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: blug-general-bounces-+qp3TudyjKPvfBIPTTProkB+6BGkLq7r@public.gmane.org
>[mailto:blug-general-bounces-+qp3TudyjKPvfBIPTTProkB+6BGkLq7r@public.gmane.org] On Behalf Of Su Jiang
>Sent: Wednesday 31 March, 2004 10:16
>To: 'Beijing LUG general non-technical discussion list - Not
>publiclyposted'; [email protected]
>Subject: RE: [blug-general] Non - Linux - But good article
>
>
>Hi, as a Chinese I would like to make a few comments too.
>
>I like the article that Richard recommended.  I am really into my job and
>can't follow up with the discussion in this mailing list all the time.
>Often I skipped the articles that Bluggers recommended in their email but I
>happened to read this article and found it is very informative, interesting
>and intelligent.  Personally I would like to thank Richard to have taken
>efforts and time to pick this great article and shared with us, isn't
>sharing the true spirit of Linux?
>
>I tend to think Fred has been a bit emotional on this issue.  Whatever we
>felt about the wordings or opinions of the article does not change the fact
>at all, right?  The truth is out there, hiding from the truth does not
>change it, neither denial.  The article may not telling the ultimate truth,
>but it is informative enough to expend the horizon of our knowledge about
>skyscrapers, isn't this a nice thing?  Why we geeks have to sit in the well
>of technology and stay away from other interesting knowledge?  The spirit of
>technology is not about learning and building but to explore with passion -
>it is a fun tour!
>
>I understand Fred's concern about saving bluggers' time by keeping this
>mailing list specialized in technology issues only.  I have to say that this
>sound a bit too up-tight for me. I am an up-tight person at my job too, but
>I don't take this mailing list as serious as my job, and I don't think we
>need to.  I think this is a mailing list of freedom. Richard has the freedom
>of posing articles for people's interest, people who are not interested has
>the freedom of not reading it, and Fred has the freedom to claim that he was
>offended.  I don't agree to make any rules on this mailing list for that
>will break the spirit of freedom, which is also the spirit of Linux.
>
>Another thing I can't agree, is the way of your debate.  Where is this
>leading?  The article is informative and useful but your debate is not.
>Sorry to say so but this is my freedom to express my feeling.  : )
>
>Regards,
>
>Amy

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