Re: OS questions draft, III

[EAMorical@aol.com]

As I just logged on, AOL had a news brief on a study to be
published this week in The American Psycologist showing
that use of the internet is depressing. The more people use
the internet the more depressed they get. They must not be
involved with Linux.
There seems to be several topics going on here. First the
(open source, free software), GPL issue. I'm looking at a
write-up by Matthew Thomas on RMS's New Zealand talk
on 8/28/98. Following why GNOME it states "This applies to
any proprietary software running under GNU/Linux -- the
implication is that the role of WordPerfect, Oracle, Informix
et al. on the OS will be a temporary one, until the free
equivalents are available.". I gather the goal is to create an
entire suite of GPL applications. Not only do I subscribe to
this I would go further. Free information thought I don't know
how you GPL information. In other words take human
knowledge and set it free. Take information out of the hands
of people and companies who horde it and sell it to you in
dictionaries, encyclopedias, books, etc. Never in human
history has there been such an opportunity to get back
millions of times what you give. I hope to be able to set up a
server to dish out free information. No advertisement except
maybe one for Linux. This would be my contribution to
education. When I was little I would look at my animal book
with the wonders of nature. Today I am fortunate to live across
from an in city lake and park. One day I was checking the roof
when 5 Canadian geese flew over so close I could almost have
stood up and touched them. They then went into a 180 degree
sweep down onto the lake. Twice a pair of ducks have flown by
within feet of a window. Several weeks ago I looked up from the
computer and saw a raccoon looking in the window. I would like
to get a digital video camera and try to record these events and
GPL them so everybody view them and enjoy them. Anyway this
is the reason I am so interested in seeing the multimedia and
other emerging technologies incorporated into Linux.
I have been thinking about the education questions and somehow
it seems to me that there should be a way to ask the general
question and interpret it in a variety of ways such as education,
business, games, etc. For example we have a general question
about the price of software and the availability of software. Now
if we somehow knew if the survey taker was wearing their
educational hat or their business hat or their gaming hat, we
would know to interpret the general software question as
educational software for example. This goes back to primary
user-type. But we don't have an educational user-type. Is there
some other way to do it. Even if we determine that someone is
going to school, we don't know if they have on their educational
hat, gaming hat or some other hat. Also poeple who are not in
school have an interest in education, parents for example. I
believe a person is only to do the survey once, but what if they
truly want to take the survey more than once wearing different
hats. There is no way to stop them. Anyway more to think about.

Bob