[TriLUG] MacOS X and free software

[Thomas C. Meggs]

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Enigmail is weird.

Just so you know, if you put spaces as opposed to tabs in front of the
first characters on a line, it decides to add a ~. Is that in the
OpenPGP standard or is Enigmail "smoking a fat rock" ?

Here is a regular line.

	Here is a line with a tab.
~        Here is a line with spaces instead of a tab.

~  Here is a line with some spaces. Yay, I love tildas!

Anyway. Had to b****. ;)

Regards,
Tom

Thomas C. Meggs wrote:
|
| Hi John,
|
| ~  I think that the bottom line is that people are going to do what they
| are going to do. Over all, I would suspect it may actually be better for
| free software in general:
|
| - The underlying system is based off of Unix, which will over all
| increase Unix literacy since a lot of people who wouldn't have touched
| Unix otherwise will have a chance to or be forced to. Unix is definitely
| the home of free software at present.
| - Free software enhancements which are completed on the Mac can be
| integrated back into the source tree for people who use the software on
| other systems.
|
| ~  The biggest problem with free software right now is the lack of
| addicting entertainment software which appeals to the masses at large
| and also the lack of good, solid "business" productivity applications.
| This is why I have not only a computer running Linux, but also a
| computer running Windows. (And don't worry, on my Windows computer I use
| Mozilla Mail and only plain text wrapped at 72 characters is allowed to
| leave it. :)
| ~  This is why Mac OS X shines for the Unixy people that like it. They
| have a system which is Unix at its core, that you can actually go in and
| tinker with. You have a myriad of free software thats out there that you
| can download and build with minimal trouble. And above and beyond this,
| you can walk down to Electronics Boutique on your lunch break and buy a
| game and run it at home. And if someone emails you an excel file you
| know you'll have no problems reading it.
| ~  The fact of the matter is the world doesn't change over night.
| Granted, I love free software, and I wish everything used open
| standards. But a lot of the ideologies which come along with Free
| Software are incompatible to the core of our present day society,
| weather we wish that they were or not.
| ~  This is not to say that I don't think they are good ideologies, and
| that they shouldn't be promoted. Personally I think the ideas behind GNU
| and the GPL is more in line with what the founding fathers of the USA
| had in mind then our present state of national/global affairs. Our
| governmental system was supposed to be improved upon over time and
| protect itself, but needless to say instead its just gotten bought out
| time and time again.
| ~  There are a lot of people who argue that nothing short of being
| extreme gets you anywhere. I don't think thats right. I think extremists
| are unfortunately too often labeled and their ideas are readily written
| off, even if they have a lot of good things to say. But maybe on the
| other hand, it's just that not enough people are extreme about their
| feeling and beliefs to actually put force behind their ideas. Apathy is
| the nature of the day.
|
| Just my two flattened pennys. :)
|
| Regards,
| Tom
|
| --
| $Id: .sig,v 1.17 2002/08/21 13:12:32 tom Exp $
|
| pub  1024D/87F1C20F 2001-11-15 Thomas C. Meggs <tom at plik.net>
| Key fingerprint = 5E9A D535 B9DA A889 984B  9654 2025 409B 87F1 C20F
|
| "It was funny with coffee.  Sometimes it did nothing for
| him, and actually made him weak. But sometimes it really
| made him feel like God."
|     - from "Miguel", short story by Dan Bern
|
|

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- --
$Id: .sig,v 1.17 2002/08/21 13:12:32 tom Exp $

pub  1024D/87F1C20F 2001-11-15 Thomas C. Meggs <tom at plik.net>
Key fingerprint = 5E9A D535 B9DA A889 984B  9654 2025 409B 87F1 C20F

"It was funny with coffee.  Sometimes it did nothing for
him, and actually made him weak. But sometimes it really
made him feel like God."
	- from "Miguel", short story by Dan Bern

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