Yes, Free Software is about politics. Which politics? Depends on who you ask. Some will say that freedom/privacy/human rights/democracy are part of that, but not everyone will, and that doesn't mean they're not part of the community.
This is an important debate but I don't think one in which FOSDEM as an organization has an opinion, even though some of its members might.
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@aral My absolutely personal opinion in this debate: Open Source is about methodology, Free Software is about principles.
The principles in question are that everyone should have the freedom to modify software so it does what they need it to do, rather than what the author of the software wanted it to do. This does often include freedom of expression, privacy, human rights and democracy as a side benefit, but they're not why I care about free software.
@aral It also means that if you want to modify some free software so it can, say, control your military equipment, then that does not put you outside of the free software community, even though the free software community might have a larger percentage of people of people who are also pacifists than the general population.
But that's not an absolute, and to claim that free software is about human rights, privacy, or democracy is inaccurate, at best.
@aral Finally, on the specific subject of having Google as a sponsor, I have a personal opinion on that, but I'm not going to comment on that in public.
FOSDEM is not my employer, so they can't fire me.
FOSDEM is a non-profit, all its organizers are volunteers who do this (largely thankless) work because they care about free software and/or open source.
I've also been active in the free software community as a Debian Developer and elsewhere for almost 25 years now, so trust me when I say I know what 'free software' is about.
@aral
*plonk*
@freakazoid You have an opinion, and that's valid. My opinion is different.
Free software is not about the open internet. Free software is not about general purpose computing. Free software is not about democracy. Free software is not about privacy.
Those are all important things, and I support many of them! And free software will help you in those endeavours in a very big way.
But they're not free software, by themself. Free software is, well, free software. Nothing more.
Free software isn't just about freedom to use the software you happen to make. It's about the freedom to use my computer. My printer. My phone. Not to have these devices be controlled by their manufacturer to the point that we're really just paying rent up front.
There's not a hair on my head that does not agree with this, and you thinking otherwise only shows that you completely missed my point.
@freakazoid Free Software is about the 4 freedoms, and the benefits that flow from that into use of that software, which includes things like allowing you make your computer (or printer) do what you want.
There are tangentially related causes, such as privacy, democracy, and freedom of expression, that are relevant and valid, and that I think are very important, but that, while free software can enormously help you achieving, are not directly part of the goals of Free Software.
@freakazoid And I have this (annoying, I know) habit of not conflating everything I care about into everything I do. I care about privacy, but I understand that not everyone in the Free Software community does, and honestly, I think that's fine. To me, it's not required that everything is perfect in every possible way.
When I think about free software, the base of everything is the four freedoms, nothing more.
When I think about privacy, the context is very different.
@freakazoid I'm saying that for an organization, it's not possible or desirable to form an opinion about everything. I don't think FOSDEM has an opinion on privacy, human rights, or democracy, even though most of its members do (some quite vocally so).
I'm saying it's OK for FOSDEM to be like that, as long as the opinion on free software is there and is clear.
I'm personally worried by the current backslide to facism, but it's not something I deal with in the context of FOSDEM.
@ben So what's your background then? Obviously you think you know better, so educate me. Why should I believe you, and not my 25 years of actual fucking experience in the field?
Or are you just someone else who believes "my beliefs are the only valid ones and if you disagree you're an idiot"? That way lies facism.
I've explained my opinions. It's OK if you disagree with them, and I'm happy to have a civilized discussion about them, but don't insult me just because you disagree.
@ben 40 is a number, not an explanation, but you obviously are not interested in an actual conversation and only in more insults, so, plonk.
@violetmadder You seem upset, you should take a breather.
I can agree with people on the cause of Free Software without agreeing on all their other causes.
And I'm not saying which causes; I agree with most of what you say, though not quite as angrily. It's just that there's a time and a place for everything, and a conference about "free software" is not the same thing as a conference about "privacy", even if the two are related.
I also don't think things are quite that bleak, but then that might have something to do with me not being in the same country as you.
@violetmadder Also, my "I'm not going to comment on that in public" is specifically about the sponsorship for FOSDEM and is related to me being a FOSDEM organizer.
It should not be read as a "I think google is great and everything is fine" with a dog in a burning room.
There's a reason why I use firefox, duckduckgo, and my own mailserver, ffs
I'm not apolitical for having different political opinions to you.
I have only so much time in a day to care, so I prioritise. If you go and organise a protest against Google and that manages to make them slightly less evil, more power to you. I might even join (if it's within my means to do so). But it's not something that keeps me up at night. It's not my priority.
I'm not saying your cause is wrong, just that there are other causes that I find more important.
In the mean time, while you go off and do all that, I'll sit here making sure you can actually do that without being spied upon, by contributing to an operating system you can trust to do what you want it to do, not what some shitty billionaire halfway across the world wants.
And I'll do it on my terms, which is that anyone can use what I produce for any purpose, because that to me is the most core of all cores to free software. And that includes you using
Because if you're going to insist I must be upset about your other causes, why stop there?
That's why I don't do it, and why I say that the cause of free software, *while related* to other causes, is still not the same.
@violetmadder