[hackerspaces] Hackerspaces survey on Free/Libre Open Source Software

[charlie wallace]

Personally it just makes my shy away from the discussion when people
say things like that, photoshop is great, maybe ask yourself why they
were replaced.

Use the right tool for the job, if there is no free alternative to the
software, use the paid version if you can afford it, otherwise find a
different path.  I want to get stuff done, my time is valuable to me,
if i can save time paying someone else for the time they spent making
what i needed, then so be it,  I get precious little time to spend
hacking on stuff as it is.

I'm redoing a Chinese ebay laser its got the moshi controller which is
pants, i could just throw down $500 and pick up the AWC608 and spend
an hour or two installing and it be done, using its crappy proprietary
software, or i could run my own board and then software,  or use one
of the other mostly unfinished OS laser  controllers out there, and
spend time researching them. But by the time i've done all that  i no
longer have the time to do what i wanted in the first place. i could
get involved in one of the other controllers that are out there, but
they either seem to just die off at about 90% or less, or get stuck
down in various opinions about what language the software's written
in, or what features of the language to use, or featurism ,
overpromise and under delivere, i'm sure we've all done it.. So we all
say, fine i'll make my own controller with blackjack and hookers, but
it ends up as a mostly-controller with only 9 cards out of 3 suits.

Sure i enjoy building stuff as much as the next hacker, but sometimes
i'd like to just build the thing i'm building, and not have to build
the things i need to build the thing i'm building.  Maybe eventually
i'll build everything that needs building to satisfy the Not Invented
Here syndrome that a lot of techies seem to potentially suffer from.

I prefer to use what works,  combined with available funds, i'd rather
have the philosophy of can we pitch in and afford to get this piece of
awesome equipment and software that'll help us get to our goals
faster, if we can't get it free or on the cheap, otherwise i'd have 11
axis cnc mills in every room of my house, instead of 3 axis in a few.

freedom of religion, ought to include freedom from


On Mon, Apr 7, 2014 at 2:55 PM, Mike  Dupont
<jamesmikedupont at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Ben,
> In a way it is true  that Is how I saw hackerspaces but I am learning from
> this feedback. I always thought that hackerspaces would prefer using FLOSS
> but it is also a question of what members want.
>
> To be honest for me it was that my linux workstations that I setup being
> removed and replaced with adobe/windows stations, that is one thing that
> really sent me over the edge on this topic.
>
> Of course it is the will of the people and I will respect that and just
> choose for myself where I want to spend my resources on. But I personally am
> not going to pay membership dues that is being spent on Adobe and Microsoft
> software.
>
> mike
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 7, 2014 at 4:23 PM, Ben Brown <ben at generik.ca> wrote:
>>
>> Maybe it's just the wording, but it sounds like you may want to
>> re-define a hackerspace as a FLOSS-only environment, to the exclusion of
>> spaces that may use proprietary software?
>>
>> I've been to a handful of difference hackerspaces in North America, and
>> I can't think of one where I didn't see *something* that was using
>> proprietary tools or software. Sometimes there's no practical choice
>> otherwise.
>>
>> Ben
>>
>> On 4/7/2014 4:53 PM, Mike Dupont wrote:
>> >
>> > For me, i just wish that there were some criteria and guidelines we
>> > could all agree on that we can send  to people who want to call
>> > themselves a hackerspace to guide them. I see that my survery was very
>> > biased in my personal view of FLOSS as pointed out by Randall.
>> >
>> > For me I am thinking about creating what these guidelines might
>> > include, and maybe this is the forum to discuss them.
>> >
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Discuss mailing list
>> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>
>
>
> --
> James Michael DuPont
> Member of Free Libre Open Source Software Kosova http://www.flossk.org
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> Mozilla Rep https://reps.mozilla.org/u/h4ck3rm1k3
>
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