Let’s campaign for our (digital) rights

For many years, campaigning was the only option we had to defend our rights. Even today, when we want to raise our voice to show what we want, we campaign for or against stuff. For example, FSF is now campaigning against using proprietary software for education and wants schools to use free software instead, to protect students and defend their digital rights.

Well not every time we campaigned for something, we succeeded but at least many people heard our voice and started learning about what we said. Campaigning is still very important for advocacy. Individuals like me, can do nothing without the power of society joined together for a common interest.

In today’s world, many of our rights are being violated. Even those who believe that are supporting us sometimes do stuff we don’t expect at all. The 16th anniversary of OpenStreetMap was celebrated at an online Zoom conference. We know for a fact that Zoom has serious problems over security and is a proprietary software.

Now, as a user of OSM, if I protest against it, nothing would happen as I would be considered an individual who doesn’t like Zoom. But if we campaign against it, the anniversary holders will realize that what we’re talking about is a matter of public interest of OSM users.

Joining the campaigns that defend our rights is very important. In many ways, campaigning is the only way that can support our belief and rights. For example, while ago, ICANN was giving the .org registry control to a private firm, which EFF campaigned against. The results were great. ICANN canceled it because it realized that people are highly disappointed. Now, PIR (Public Internet Registry which is a nonproft) is still in control of .org domain extension.

Now, our problem is that many people don’t participate in a campaign because they see a large group of people were already joined. We should know that no number is considered enough when we campaign. The amount of people who join the campaign shows the power of that statement people are campaigning for.

Sadly, many people don’t bother to take few minutes and signing a campaign which they know is for their own benefit. It is very wrong. As I said, more people joining the campaign, more power the campaign gains to defend its goal.

Please join the campaigns that defend your rights because they are not worthless. In fact, they did a lot of things for our own good and they are still powerful to defend us. Campaigning is still important and useful in many ways. Let’s campaign for our rights again.

Why do you have children?

I see some people ask others “why don’t you have children?” and I believe it’s a stupid question. Not having any children should not be asked about. In fact, what should we ask people is “why do you have children?”

We need license for many things, such as driving. However, having children does not require anything. Having children is a big and important responsibility and not everyone should be allowed to have children. Those who do not have children, in my opinion, have done their social and human duty better than others.

I believe people with no children realize how important and serious this responsibility is. Not having children should not be questioned; it’s having children that should be criticized.

With current problems in the world, having children in many cases is cruelty to that child and should be considered selfishness. We give birth to children, but we don’t own them. Raising them good is our responsibility and duty. They’re not our properties, so we can’t treat them anyway we want.

If they are oppressed in any way, whether physical or emotional, we are guilty. If they are dissatisfied with the situation they are in, we are responsible. I’m not against breeding at all, what I’m against is giving birth to children without being prepared for the responsibilities.

I also believe nobody should be forced to have children nor be forced to not having children. I believe we should spread knowledge and information about it. Forcing people to not having children is not acceptable at all, just like how forcing people to have children is wrong.

Freedom of thought is more important that freedom of software

It’s been quite some time that I’m active in promoting software freedom and free culture movement. In all these years that I’ve been active, I saw many people that use free software because they are excited about it. They are trying something new (for them) and they are interested in finding every aspect of it.

However, when I talk about software freedom to somebody and that person decides to immediately delete his Google (and other proprietary) accounts, services, and programs, I ask for patience and tell that person to not hurry. I tell those who make emotional and hurried decisions not to move fast and to move forward step by step with patience.

I believe, freedom of thought is much more important than using free software.

A free-thinking person makes decisions not out of temporary feelings but out of study and awareness. That person weighs the consequences of each action and chooses tools not on the basis of emotion, but on the basis of its long-term impact on himself and society.

A free-thinking person cares about free software because that person is deeply aware of his rights and responsibilities.

Instant decisions often lead to short-term use and boredom, while informing people and giving freedom of thought to people leads to the right choice and development of software and culture freedom movement.

Attracting new contributors and free software enthusiasts

As the number of computer users is growing, the need for free software is being felt more than ever. We see new services every day and free software developers are trying to make their programs look more like the proprietary ones, in order to make sure nobody is forced to use any proprietary software because of the user interface or possible features.

Some foundations such as FSF and EFF are trying their best to spread knowledge about people’s digital rights. However, getting people to avoid proprietary software and only using free programs is not an easy job to do.

We need more than possibility of using free software to get people respecting their computer freedom and rights. There should be benefits for people in using free software. For example, whenever I ask people to leave Google services and use free (as in freedom) tools such as Nextcloud, I tell them how more efficient and useful Nextcloud is comparing to proprietary services such as Google.

Another example is telling them how tech giants are violating their privacy and those corporations control people by controlling the flow of information people get. I tell them how using free software benefits them and gives them back their control over their digital and non-digital life by giving them back their rights.

Another thing which can attract people is that I treat them with respect. I tell them they have rights over what’s theirs and I answer their questions with patience. Unlike most proprietary software companies that treat people as “customers” or “money machines”, I try to treat people with kindness and patience. This way, they understand that free software is more humane. GNU Kind Communications Guidelines can be a good document regarding this.

Another thing that I always have in mind is to teach people how freedom of software can lead us to a free society. I teach them how their rights is being violated every day and how governments are benefiting tech giants instead of people. For example, I tell people how governments spend millions of people’s taxes in buying license of Microsoft Windows when they can use GNU+Linux for free.

Many times, I try to teach people about about their privacy and security. I teach them how free software is generally more secure than proprietary software because we can study and/or change it while proprietary software forces us to use them as is, without any ability to actually know how it works. I teach them how using free software can free them from being a digital slave.

Finally, I teach companies and projects/individuals about how they can make money from their project by publishing it under a free (as in freedom) license and receive help from a large community to make their program better and more efficient, so they can attract more people into buying it. I teach them how they can benefit from the free software communities worldwide and how they can be mutually beneficial.

I teach people how free software generally costs less than proprietary software and how free software projects are more economical for them.

If someone says to you it’s raining outside and someone else says to you it’s not raining outside, your job is not to say “person A says it’s raining, person B says it’s not raining.” Your job is to open the fucking window and find out if it’s raining outside.

Mehdi Hasan
GNU+Linux desktop

User interface and software installing problem in GNU+Linux

One of the advantages that GNU+Linux distros have is that you can install various desktop environments on your computer at your will. I personally like Cinnamon a lot but for using Cinnamon DE, I’m not limited to a specific operating system. This is a problem when you’re using macOS or Windows.

To get Windows desktop environment, you have to install Windows OS. Same goes for macOS. To get Aqua (or whatever it is right now), you have to buy an Apple device running macOS. However, we see Apple Mac devices and Microsoft Windows OS dominating the computer industry and one of the reasons is of course the user interfaces.

Working with Mac and Windows devices is very easy and enjoyable for people. Most users prefer using Windows and macOS because working with them is super easy. They can install an app by dragging the file to Applications folder or just by double-clicking on its installation file.

They can update their apps just by opening Update Center and clicking on “update”, without seeing hundreds of codes appearing on a terminal emulator. Also, on macOS or Windows, you don’t need to manually install 10 – 15 dependencies to run a software.

Of course there are a lot of apps and software available that are easy to use on GNU+Linux but it’s needless to say that majority of apps are having mentioned problems. I believe one of the biggest problems for widespread use of GNU+Linux is the user interface and user experience of the DEs.

Most users are afraid to install even famous and user-friendly distros such as Ubuntu and Fedora. If we want GNU+Linux operating system to dominate the computer world and give users software/computer freedom, we should indeed find a solution (or use current solutions) to fix these problems.

Continue reading →

Start educating people about sexism when they are children

I’ve seen an amazing video of kids reacting to sexism and I was wondering is it because they are educated about sexism or this is just their humane nature. The video was about a females getting paid less than males and how kids were reacting to this discrimination.

I don’t think those kids were educated about sexism and I believe their reaction and what they did was just their nature. Humans are not sexist, racist, discriminatory, etc. by nature. They are just taught wrong. Our kids watch their environment and learn its behavior.

Now, if we start educating our children about sexism (and other konds of discrimination), they won’t act as sexists, etc. We should teach them to treat every person equally with justice, and teach them if they were treated less, they should step up and fight for their rights.

Most of us were never taught to be strong. Nobody taught us to fight against those who treat us with discrimination. We should stop this. We learned it the hard way, we should make it easy for next generations.

https://open.tube/videos/watch/ed0fbb2d-b6f6-4825-877f-359e00bf3220
The effects of sexism on children. Reactions to female discrimination

Violent behaviors only cause distance

One of the things I have problem with in free software communities is that a lot of older or more experienced folks have a really violent behavior in confronting with criticism of their ways. I see a lot of experienced people in free software communities, specially GNU and FSF mailing lists, that support the movement and have some logical reasons for their actions but the way they express them only makes people keep their distance from free software and our communities.

One of the reasons that proprietary software dominates the world is that many of these companies have a really nice way of treating people. Many users forget their digital freedoms and rights because they see (at least ostensibly) that they are treated with respect.

In the last few days I’ve seen at least three unnecessary insults and violent behavior in FSF and GNU communities. I and some other people mentioned that such behavior only makes people keep their distance from us.

Some people forget that our self-assigned mission and goal is to bring knowledge about users’ freedom and rights to people and not all people are technical experts or are experienced about computers. If we’re going to criticize people who have less experience or knowledge about computers, then all we did till now is worthless.

If free software is only for software developers then we should rephrase it to something that shows this false goal. Free software is not only for programmers. It’s for everybody. Free software is to bring users their freedom. We should repeat it frequently to remind it to advocates.

You don’t need to understand code or every matter in computers to support free software. If you care for software freedom and digital rights, you have every right to talk, express opinions, act, and be active in free software communities and nobody can stop you.