[Arm-netbook] OT: Librem 5?

[Isaac David]

Bill Kontos wrote :
> Purists that will tell you to just not use a phone because
> we are required by regulations to run those few kb of closed rom code
> have no place in this discussion honestly because they offer nothing
> to the table for a solution.

this bit here struck a chord with me.

they are offering you one of the best possible solutions available; if
not the best (until one of us finds a couple trillion dollars to
revamp telephony protocols and devices around the world): cutting
through telco/OEM profits until they understand they will only make
money by respecting our privacy and freedom.

it's like consumerism long made us forgot that delaying a bad deal is
also an option, most of the time. life saving procedures can't wait a
decade or two, but mobile communications?, hell yeah. you don't get to
call boycotters on a lack of solutions, when it's the refusal to join
them precisely what undermines the effectiveness of their solution.

as a cellphone non-user and die-hard libre software acolyte, i don't
see the Purism people as enemies. they only need to reword their
marketing to be a bit less disingenuous. they speak the language of
the purists; this is how we know they _are_ aware that their products
will fall short of something like a RYF cert.

> And they shouldn't. Thinking in black and white has been the sole
> reason for many many attrocities[...]

maybe that wasn't the best example, but dichotomies are still a
thing. not everything is a gradient, and we should be more judicious
in finding the right model for the situation. ironically, by ruling
out the possibility of a dichotomy you have fallen victim of bad
black-and-white thinking. black-and-nothing-else thinking, in fact.

> You don't change someone's world view in one fell swoop, you do it 1%
> at a time. [...]  So it is my personal opinion that the FSF should
> find a different speaker that can understand his/her audience better
> than rms does.

well, there are some. have you listened to John Sullivan's talks? they
are geared towards attracting the general FLOSS audience to the libre
side of things. perhaps what we need is more people willing to educate
the public with the strategy of their choice.

different strokes for different folks. i would have never jumped on
board with 1% increases. the whole enterprise would have struck me as
vague and poorly thought. moreover, it wouldn't matter how out from
the overton window free software is. we would still need RMS' clear
referent to not lose sight of what the end goal is.

RMS can't possibly adopt different strategies without being berated
for inconsistency. and from a purely practical perspective, he
probably knows that he will never speak to the same audience twice,
which means that results will be maximum when those few all-or-nothing
daredevils are targeted.

-- 
Isaac David
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