Nice story but . . . removing a constraint is not the same as imposing
them.

golinux


On 2017-06-21 11:06, Bruce Perens wrote:
> About the time I started working on Free Software, I also founded
> _No-Code International_ with the goal of eliminating Morse Code exams
> as a requirement for the ham radio license, worldwide. This required a
> change in international law, the International Telecommunications
> Treaty of the ITU, a UN organization, and a corresponding change in
> the laws of many nations after that.
>
> The president of TAPR (a digital ham communications organization) said
> in a keynote that we were looking at the end of ham radio within 20
> years if we could not do something about the declining licensing of
> young people. He said that many of us would preside over the demise of
> ham radio in our lifetimes, and we sure didn't like that. I was out to
> reverse the trend.
>
> People pleaded with me not to "dumb down" Amateur Radio. At ham radio
> gatherings, I got cursed out and yelled at. ARRL dispatched an
> ex-president of their organization to IARU (International Amateur
> Radio Union) meetings with one mission: preserve the Morse Code
> requirement.
>
> Our side won. Today there are more hams in the US than ever before in
> history, and we are no longer expecting the demise of Ham Radio.
>
> Nobody walks up to me and says that things would have been better had
> I not interfered. I do get a lot of handshakes and thank-yous from new
> hams. My regional ARRL director asks me to come to the podium to be
> introduced at our annual meetings each year. I continue to be invited
> to keynote ham conferences.
>
> I do seem to hear a lot of the same sentiment as the pro-code guys in
> this discussion. And I know where that goes. We didn't dumb anything
> down, we just got people to participate. And everything was better for
> it.
>

>     Thanks

>

>     Bruce

>
> On Wed, Jun 21, 2017 at 8:51 AM, <golinux@???> wrote:
>
>> On 2017-06-21 02:02, Dr. Nikolaus Klepp wrote:
>> Am Mittwoch, 21. Juni 2017 schrieb Bruce Perens:
>>> I agree, that 90% of the people are hapy with limited choice. But
>> as you
>> already said, that field is served by apple and M$. No > need for
>> us to
>> follow down that road. Salvation is not on to be found on the
>> highway :-)
>>
>> What you are saying is that you'd willingly leave the world to
>> Apple and
>> Microsoft rather than have more people run Free Software, if it
>> means you
>> have to deal with those messy other people. This isn't healthy for
>> Free
>> Software. Maybe not even healthy for you.
>>
>> May you fight for the souls of the unbelievers, you have my
>> blessing.
>> But this is not my war.
>>
>> Nik
>
> Mine either. You can't fix 'stupid' with free software. Darwin
> always wins. What does courting 'stupid' with free software
> accomplish? I don't think the answer is as idealistic as some might
> think. If Mac and Windows can control 'stupid', so can free software.
> And the egos of those seeking to lure those users? Well that's
> classic psych 101. What to say, I'm old and cynical . . .
>
> golinux
>