[AktiviX] Media Hacklab open meeting this Sunday

[spanner]

Asa Winstanley wrote:

> Though I think you were taking the Mick of 
> anarchists/anti-capitalists, Charlie, I sort of agree with your 
> analogy. Anti-capitalist tend to be open to learning the free 
> software alternatives but are not going to stop using Windows, 
> Quark, Premiere etc. just like that tomorrow - even where there 
> are free alternatives. They think it's stupid to be purist about 
> free software for its own sake, simply for the that same reason 
> that anarchists don't stop using money - life-styleism  gets us 
> nowhere.

I don't think it's "purist" to advocate using Free/Libre software 
wherever possible, even if it's sometimes inconvenient.  If there is a 
genuine lack of a Free alternative for a specific activism purpose, 
that's one thing.  But a number of the posts I saw on the freelab list 
were saying "we have to live in the real world", an excuse commonly used 
to justify every sort of self-perpetuating collaboration with capitalism 
and ecocide.

Ana P is right: it's not really a hacklab or a freelab if it's running 
not just non-Free software (like Solaris), but anti-Free software, from 
the most aggressive and ruthless lobbyist against software freedom.  The 
biggest threat to the success of Linux isn't Windows, it's the "free as 
in beer" stuff (warez, temporary freebies like IE and WMP, etc), and 
imminent patent legislation.  Supporting the first will make a deathblow 
from the second much more likely.  Working hard to get rid of MS warez 
isn't lifestylism: it's essential self defense.

If any new users are really all at sea with KDE or Gnome, there are more 
"Windows-like" Linux desktops available, like Lycoris and XPDE.

http://www.xpde.com/
http://lycoris.com/

This is sort of the software equivalent of selling fake meat to newbie 
vegetarians, but a stepping-stone is better than nothing. :)

By the end of the exchange, the main defender of MS warez admitted that 
he hadn't actually tried Linux since Red Hat 6 three or four years ago, 
so maybe that's where some of the confusion came from.  He seems to be 
getting on well with Knoppix too.

A lot of us non-Londoners are inspired by all the hard work you're 
putting in on this though, and several of us here in Oxford are talking 
about building something resembling your description of the hacklab.  I 
hope to get to one of your meetings very soon to meet up and learn more 
about what you've done.  Thanks!