[PD] [PD-announce] more objects: passwd utils

[João Miguel Pais]

> To me, suggesting people to stop using Windows and use a free OS will  
> always
> be a very constructive contribution. My intention is not to start a flame
> war, because we are free to use a proprietary OS, and its always possible
> to switch. My constructive contributions sometimes involve programming
> software for Windows, but rarely, only for money, and when the  
> application
> is completely OS agnostic. Even if PD work on Windows, I prefer to use  
> this
> free software on a free OS for various practical and ethical reasons.

you spoke about programming. that means that you're a programmer, right?  
I'm not, as the great majority of computer users, and don't have the time  
to spend in forums and web-search when some unix system doesn't know how  
to configure itself for some hardware (specially when it says that it can  
and/or it is). or even worse, when some programmers think that because  
they know how to set each variable they decide that everyone should do it  
as well, and to install one program it is necessary to read the whole  
programming manual or install an x number of other programs.

I'm willing to drop windows for linux (I already have ubuntu installed,  
and tried already several times to do it with other distributions). Since  
I don't have much more time or pacience to spend my life browsing the net  
or mailing people to solve problems like the printer doesn't work (even  
thought it says in the screen that it is installed) and the winmodem can't  
be configured, or the newest one, sometimes gnome doesn't want to start  
(and the official documentation about these problems is some mail in a  
thread somewhere - if someone is nice enough to post it -, and not in the  
program's homepage), I invite you to come here and setup my system until  
it works. I can't afford to pay you, so I can offer that I host you and  
cater for you. Is this constructive enough?

windows might be not "pure" in body and spirit, but it works, and you  
don't have to loose as much time setting it up as with unix systems - when  
you're not a programmer (as is the case with almost all musicians). even  
to build up pd on unix it's necessary to look around the makefile and  
change by hand some variables, but this isn't clearly mentioned in the  
documentation. is that supposed to be user-friendly?
if you're looking to be pure in ethical matters, you should emmigrate to a  
deserted island and speak to no one. in the real world every contact you  
make with someone will be always a compromise. you just have to look deep  
enough and something rotten will be there.


my 2 EU-cents

João Miguel Pais