On 9/5/07, Mohamed Magdy mohamed.m.k@gmail.com wrote:
The idea of thinking about the future and the enforcing nature of the policy sounds appropriate, may be, just may be, after many years from now, the people working might take an easy route of using proprietary software. always using free things increases the sustainability of a given thing hence the code is always available and any porting/changes needed to make it work can be done without reverse engineering it.
I am convinced (maybe because I am one of those) that the Wikimedia projects actually bring people who had absolutely no idea about the difference in evilness or goodness ;-) between proprietary software or free software to come and care about these issues.
I was a Windoze and Adaubi advocate (and I mean the word advocate here) not two years ago. I am running Linux on my machine and working with The Gimp even on a professional level today. I do not believe that "forcing" the "free" upon people is the way to go. Interess them, poke them with it, make them understand. Be pedagogic and patient. Don't "force" them. Teach them your "principles" rather than scare them with "policy".
I won't mind if a user using IE is faced with a white screen with a link to use firefox :P
I do, if that means this person is hindered in their access to the content we host.
Delphine