Re: Software issues (was Re: educational software...)

[EAMorical@aol.com]

Pete,
You raise many good points. I'll try a few comments. You state "our job
is to work on the OS part of it". I don't know. Concerning this point I
believe things have been inconsistant. This has to be fixed. Also for me
the goal is not to write a survey (the survey is only the means to some
end), but to achieve that end which we have not clearly defined. You
also state "Clearly, some coodination with the software end of SEUL is
needed". Absolutely, the survey cuts across everything. Finally you
state "So how do we get out of this rut". We can't as long as we stick
with an inconsistant goal. The solution is to precisely define what SEUL
is trying to accomplish and what the survey needs to find out in order to
accomplish that goal. Again the survey is not the goal.

Pete, three times you've memtioned that your reason for joining SEUL
was something to do about application software. I guess I've never quite
grasped what you really want to accomplish. I believe that people have
to accomplish their goals or they won't stay around SEUL.  Basically I
have two goals which like Doug says are not necessarily SEUL's. First
to see a  totality of application software running on Linux. Second to
see the totality of human knowledge freely accessable to everyone.
As has been said, if I give you my computer I no longer have it. But if I
give you my knowledge not only do you have it but I also retain it. We
allocate finite resources like computers by putting a price on them.
When we put a restriction on the distribution of an infinite resource
like knowledge, we are turning it into a finite resource. This is waste.
So much for now.

Bob