On Sun, Mar 19, 2006 02:42:59 AM -0600, Christofer C. Bell (christofer.c.bell@xxxxxxxxx) wrote: > On 3/18/06, M. Fioretti <mfioretti@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Greetings, > > > > here is an article I wrote on this subject: > > [...] >F/OSS software is more than just Linux and the OpenDocument format >has nothing to do with Linux at all. Your article (while very well >written) serves only to highlight the selfish whines of a few >ignorant (in terms of uneducated) people Thanks for appreciating the article. As far as your comment goes, I surely agree (even if I would replace "selfish" with "more uninformed that they can afford"). That's why I wrote: >Disabled users fail to perceive that they have the same needs and >rights of everybody else. However, I think and hope that the article highlights more than that, that is also the fact that too much of the FOSS community has an elithist attitude and shortsightedness that it can't afford anymore. Not towards disabled users, towards all the other 99.99% of people who wouldn't touch source code if they were tortured, but are no less valuable because of this. That's why I also wrote, more or less, "the reaction of disabled users has nothing special. It is simply the *same* that almost *everybody* has towards the GNU manifesto. Blind people only have legal hooks to defend themselves, but this is nevertheless the way almost the whole world sees the FOSS movement. Let's acknowledge that, too". Practically speaking, what I hope most is that this article leads to as many direct talks as possible between FOSS fans and disabled users. Organize meetings in your area with representatives of both communities, write to local disabled associations...this kind of things. Please let me know of any initiative of this kind. Ciao, Marco -- Marco Fioretti mfioretti, at the server mclink.it Fedora Core 3 for low memory http://www.rule-project.org/ I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library. Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)
