Top Trumps scores (S5E10)

[Aq]

How do you score in our five criteria that define the reasons we use Linux? What are your ratings for freedom crusading, cheapness, supporting the underdog, community, and tinkering? Do you think there are reasons other than those why you're into Linux and open source?

[Allix]

I presume this is out of 9.

freedom crusading - 6
At every opportunity i will use free software , if not i would use non-free to get whatever i wanted to do done.
Use the best tool for job is the motto i go by most of time.

cheapness - 9
Its hard not too admit that i like software for nothing
Like jono i did mostly pirate software before i came to free software.
I do not feel bad either because you may as well make "cp" and the like illegal if you believe copying is morally wrong.
sharing so called "illegal" files is actually part of society, and society must be ruled by what people want.
To make things clearer i recommend watching pirate bays steal this film videos http://www.stealthisfilm.com if you have not already.

I do however support small bands , art-house films, publisher of books (i am that big into ebooks) because without the money from people like me , they just not going to create anymore of the great content.

supporting the underdog - 9

I have always been more or less one of those who likes to seek out the alternative, weird and strange.
Free software fits that bill nicely. Even though Linux is now in the mainstream it will not keep me away at looking at other smaller operating systems around.

community - 8
This definitely has a big part, from the various forums i take part in and other online communication.
The fact that people are real and not just there to sell you a darn product.
Send in a bug report or even comment on something and get back a instant reply is something to cherish in the free software community. The fact that we can also have a laugh and not take ourself too seriously is a added bonus.

tinkering - 8

I like to play around with computers, take them to their limits. Try all sorts of things without trial/demo versions.
The fact that things are not always perfect in free software adds to this, it gives it the "human" touch.
tinkering is just so much easier with free software.


that's my lot

[garwaymatt]

I think they were out of 10 actually, but giving 10/10 would be fairly unrealistic.

You said you wanted some of the higher profile LR community guys, but nevermind, the complete nobody scores coming up.

Freedom crusading :7
This is very important to me, as is freedom in my life in general, however, I am not a complete freedom zealot,(I use opera )
I will always choose the freest hardware (all intel etc) but that has two upsides, one is that it is free so I am supporting companies that choose to release free drivers etc. The other factor is that everything generally just works, you don't need to faff around with ndiswrapper(I used to have a broadcom card. Never again.) then getting so frustrated I found myself thinking "will it blend?"

Cheapness:6
I think that cheapness is partially the reason, I love the fact that I can just downoad away, without any guilt. I found, that like Aq, I don't want to pay for software anymore, I just don't consider it to be an option.

I do download music, but generally if I like it, I will get a cd, or if I don't just not listen to it. (I much prefer having a CD to music files as my sole media collection)

The underdouge:2
hmm, not really, the obscurity seems less important to me, maybe because I am relativly new to it(2004), where in all my linux using years it has become steadily more sucessful. I would like to see it far more widespread, and think that it will achieve this at some point.

Communitisation 6
The community is important, it has solved a lot of the problems that I have had(such as the broadcom incident), but I do feel that I am still an outsider, more of an observer, I read several mailing lists, but rarely reply. I feel that I am not technical enough(Code makes no sense to me) to contribute directly to projects, but I often answer (fairly basic) questions that people ask outside of the community. These include forums that are completly unreleated to linux/freesoftware etc. I do not feel that this is as much as I would like to do, the community has helped me, I have not helped the community kind of thing.

Tinkering:9
I have played around with all sorts of things, from cars to computers, and the tinkering aspect is very high in that respect, When I install Ubuntu I spend time setting it up just so, with all the software that I want, with the themes and bling that I want.
I think the lack of coding ability could hamper me here, but I like playing around with new stuff.

Thats about it.

[linuxrulz]

My LugRadio Top Trumps scores :

Freedom Crusading: 6
I am all for 'free as in freedom' and 'free as in mom's cooking' (I don't drink). Regretfully, due to circumstances beyond my control, some places on the internet require me to use proprietary drivers ie: Adobe Flash Player used on ABC Australia. Since the community does not have a viable working alternative to my knowledge, I have to install Adobe Flash. I've tried gnash but to no avail. If someone can direct me to a flash player alternative that works, I'll gladly install it!

Cheapness: 8
My friends swear that every time I open my wallet moths fly out of it from not being used; I couldn't agree more! But if I do have to pay for something ie: Internet service, I will but not without shedding a few tears in the process. Free High Speed Internet - there's a pipe dream to consider. Especially in many parts of the world.

Underdog: 9
I absolutely support the underdog. How thrilling is it to see something that people say cannot be done, be done and be better than any other in its field? A perfect example - GNU/Linux. At one point, Microsoft didn't even consider Linux a threat - now they are scared that Linux is getting a foothold. Had they not released Vista (or is that Windows ME Version 2.0?), they may not be as concerned as they are now. Who said penguins weren't vicious?

Community Involvement: 7
Where I'm still new to Linux and all its features, the community has been a god send. The politeness and knowledge is very much appreciated (ie: LugRadio). I haven't asked too many questions to this point on the forums I'm a member of; however when I have the directions are excellent and very polite. Where cricket is considered 'the gentleman's game' Linux should be considered 'the gentleman's OS'.

Tinkering: 3
I don't mind tinkering, it's just that when I've done it in the past interesting things have happened (ie: don't rm /tmp when programs depend on it - if you don't mind 'cursing a blue streak' go for it!) I don't think any more has to be said on that one!

[Aq]

Since the community does not have a viable working alternative to my knowledge, I have to install Adobe Flash. I've tried gnash but to no avail.

Yeah, Gnash is still a way from being viable for a lot of stuff. I'd strongly recommend that you talk to the Gnash people about ABC, though; they like receiving test-cases of stuff that doesn't work so they can fix it (and you might find that they fix ABC and then you'll be able to use gnash quite happily!)

[Mig21]

Instead of giving answers like 5 and 6 (which only mean "i don't know"), I'll give you proper answers:

Freedom Crusading: 0

Most of the freedom crusaders are just rationalising something, probably their cheapness; and they do their best to make you feel like crap because you don't agree with them. When the topic isn't software freedom these guys are usually called trolls. The rest are just plain stupid or nuts (e.g. Stallman).

rationalize, v.: if you rationalise behaviour that is wrong, you invent an explanation for it so that it does not seem as bad

Cheapness: 0

I haven't come across a single piece of software back when I was a full-time windows user that I couldn't pirate. So it would be a lie to say that price had anything to do with me switching to linux.

Underdog: 10

It's a personality thing, and attracts me a lot. Of course I tell myself that I'm smarter than the crowds so if everyone is using it, that means it's for stupid people

Community Involvement: 0

There's nothing special about open source communities. Years ago I spent as much time with people playing Starcraft, or developing some cool proprietary gadget. Communities that form around proprietary software are of the same quality (overall average), and far more numerous.

Tinkering: 10

I can make linux do what I want it to do more often and easier than windows. I have never been able to set up a windows server to do all the things my slackware server was doing back when I set it up for the first time, 3 years ago.

[samgee]

Freedom crusading: 9

I like to know what's happening on my computer and I hate companies (artificially) restricting my use of it. Besides, free software is the only practical solution in the long term anyway.
My work pc is the only compromise in this issue.

Cheapness: 3

Not having to pay for my software is nice, but not necessary. In fact, if the payment methods suited me better free software would get a lot more donations from me. (Incidentally, if anyone knows of a worthwile European project or organization that accepts bank transfers, I still have some change to spare.)
I'm much more of a cheap bastard in real life. Basically, if it's not really useful and it's not for the good cause, I ain't spending.

Underdog: 7

I like economic balance, but I think where seeing less of as time goes by. Companies get bigger in size and fewer in number. I always try to avoid the market leader and the fact that's not always possible nowadays frightens me. This sometimes gets in the way of freedom crusading (Intel, HP, Google).
Apart from power balances, I don't care that much for the little guy. Haiku OS is cool, but I'd rather promote the big guy in free software, to achieve succes more quickly.

Community: 2

I spend some time on forums, but don't contribute that much. I'd like to do coding, but I never seem to get around to it. I can talk about computer stuff and freedom all you want, but I couldn't keep a converstation going beyond that to save my life. My attempts at constructive criticism are usually misunderstood.

Tinkering: 5

Software: yes, hardware: no. It's more seeing how stuff works than creating my own stuff. I'm also more interested in knowing how stuff is supposed to be constructed rather than the quickest way to getting it to work. I'd rather spend hours making a website that is valid XHTML but doesn't look like it's supposed to in any browser than minutes making one that has sloppy code and looks nice in the two most popular browsers.

Great segment, by the way. It was nice to hear Matt's scores as well.

[avantman42]

(Incidentally, if anyone knows of a worthwile European project or organization that accepts bank transfers, I still have some change to spare.)

OpenStreetMap. Their donations wiki page has full details.

[Ryan]

Freedom crusading :8

Freedom is very important to me, I love to promote linux for it's freedom rather than just on its technically capabilities,
I always tend to towards open hardware to avoid any problems later on, I had a dlink g122 c1, and while there was a driver it needed alot of effort whereas now I use open wireless cards. I like to explain this too everyone who is intrested in technology.

Cheapness:4
Even though I'm a poor student I don't mind paying for things - If there is something I need quickly and it's not to expensive I will pay for it, however linked into my freedom crusading I love the fact that I can have an office suite, email client, java ide, image editors etc all for free - quickly and legally.

The underdouge:7
I quite like supporting the underdog, it was the main reason I came to linux as it was just such a different approach and it's ideals spoke to me. I like to offer my services to underdog projects such as website design/promoting to help them as I always feel that the little guy has so much to offer.

Communitisation: 6
The community is important to me, it's always there to help with any problems I have and in general the FOSS community has a pretty good vibe. I like to be involved in the community however if I have something to do I can quite easily end up forgetting there is a world outside until the project is done.

Tinkering:1 and 10
I love to tinker, however I'm just not great at it. I like to take my computer apart and try and clean and improve it however much like the xkcd comic where he's wanting to do a simple update it seems to get very bad, very quickly.

I'm very good at software based tinkering but then hardware I come unstuck

I hope in the future i'll get more of an intuition with regards with what to tinker with and what will die if I mess with it.

So those are my scores.

[avantman42]

I actually found it quite difficult to decide what ratings to give, but here's what I've settled on:

Freedom Crusading: 6

I like the freedom, but I don't tend to crusade a whole lot. It's important to me, but it's important because it brings about tangential benefits - I rarely compile from source or read someone else's code. However, the fact that other people can read the code and fix things benefits everyone. I've long thought that open source is like stone soup: everyone gets more out than they put in.

Cheapness: 8

I am quite tight, but then, I'm from Yorkshire, so I'd be going against the stereotype if I wasn't I have donated money to projects, and some time back I even donated to Lug Radio (it took the ungrateful bastards ages to actually acknowledged it on air, and then they claimed someone else was the first person to donate! But I'm not bitter. Oh no) I like the fact that I can have several computers full of useful software, and it not cost me anything.

Underdog: 4

I don't support Linux & open source because it's the underdog, I support it because I think it's a good thing that's worth supporting. There are other things that I support that happen to be underdogs, but again, I support them because they're worth supporting, not because they're the underdog.

Community: 3

The community isn't a big thing for me, and I actively dislike some parts of it. Lug Radio appears to attract generally groovy people, which is cool, but there are some real arseholes in the open source community. I'm a member of my local LUG, and go to LUG meetings when I can. I don't think I'd really miss the community very much if it suddenly disappeared, though, which is why I've only given it a 3.

Tinkering: 7

I like to tinker. I used to tinker with electronics (and I used to fix TVs, videos etc for a living), but these days I tend to tinker with software rather than hardware. I find it interesting to poke at things like Gobby, even if I don't have a use for it. This, for me, is tied into the cheapness score - because I can download it and try it for free (without getting annoying nag screens or it deciding not to work after 30 days or whatever), I'll do so.

[mrben]

Thought it was high time I posted my scores too:

Freedom crusading : 7
This is a tricky one - I think I probably sit somewhere between Aq and Jono on this one. I like to promote freedom, and I use Free software wherever possible. As mentioned above, I will always try to buy hardware that I know will work under Linux. However, I do also have a practical side - I run the nVidia drivers which mean I can play my 3D games. But I specifically bought the nVidia card because the support from them was better than for ATI. And the games I play are games that actively support Linux (Quake4, Doom3, UT2K3/4, etc). My home machine is 100% Linux - no dual-booting for me

So - I am willing to give up a certain amount of functionality in favour of Freeness, but try to be practical in my support of Linux too.

Cheapness: 8
One of the original reasons I got into Linux was because it was free. I was an immensely poor student (living on a grant - no loan) with an old 486 running Windows 3.1. In 1998. I was, frankly, amazed that you could get all this stuff for nothing. And I still am (both poor and amazed ). If I had to pay for all the Free software I use, I would struggle to do so - I have other things requiring my cash most of the time. Having a 100% up-to-date modern OS and applications on my system is only possible because it's free-as-in-beer.

The underdouge: 4
I don't think I'm specifically for the underdouge, but I don't mind giving the overdouge a kick every now and then I don't use Linux specifically because I dislike Microsoft's monopoly position and business practices, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

Communitisation: 7
I think the community aspect of Free software projects is very important - the projects that succeed are, generally, the ones with the most vibrant developer and user communities. (FWIW, this is why I think Canonical did so well, so quickly with Ubuntu - because they managed to create a vibrant community). LugRadio exists on the back of it's community too. I do my best to be involved in communities, but it doesn't always happen as much as I'd like - I use a lot of software and can't be involved in all of them!

Tinkering: 7
Because I'm a cheapskate, I tend to tinker with old hardware a lot. And I play around with Python scripts. Not all of these things come to fruition, and it's a bit patchy at times, so it's not a higher score.

[UnixAnt]

Freedom Crusading: 8

I am a huge advocate of free software, and 9 times out of 10 I will use this over the commercial equivalent as a matter of principle. Furthermore, not only do I use free and open source software on a regular basis, I actively go out of my way to preach about it. Its amazing how many people think PC = Microsoft, without actually understanding that they have the freedom to choose their OS. Educating the masses goes a long way. I would have scored myself higher, but I'm forced to use Microsoft products at work (and I'm a corporate unix sysadmin - go figure).

Cheapness: 1

I would have no hesitation whatsoever shelling out, say, £50 on a Linux distro on the proviso that the money would be used to help better the Linux community. I strongly believe you CAN make money from open source software, and I would fully support companies offering such products and services. If I ever win the lottery, or had to nominate a charitable cause to donate money to, I'm pretty certain I would choose to help finance a worthy open source project.

The Underdouge: 8

I must admit, I got into Linux back in 1996 not out of curiosity or because I was doing much Unix work, but because it was different and not very popular. In my time I have used lots of products and operating systems which fall into the realms of obscurity. I have used OS/2 Warp, Linux (when it was in its infancy), QNX, RiscOS, OpenBSD, etc purely because they were cult.

Communitisation: 4

Although I appreciate that a well organised community is a powerful and productive entity, I just don't have enough time in the day to become actively involved in it. Saying that, I am a member of my local LUG (and go to the monthly meetings) and try to contribute as best I can, but time is a luxury I do not have (hence my post count on most of the forums I'm a member of).

Tinkering: 9

If it can be broken - I will break it. This is how I have always operated. The first thing I do when installing a piece of software, for instance, is study the config file rather than diving in and trying to fumble around. I'm more interested in the mechanics of how things work than anything else, and the only way to appreciate how complex problems are solved is to go out and break things.

[DJ]

Freedom Crusading: 7
Depends on what you mean by 'crusading'. I don't 'crusade' but do believe in Free Software and that all software should be free. If people want to use or prefer non-free software that's their choice, but I don't have to agree with them.
The only thing I'm zealous about is people who like to disregard the opinions of those who believe in Free Software and brand us all as zealots and extremists.

Cheapness: 7
I think seven is fair here. I am pretty cheap, but that has nothing to do with why I use Free Software. It's not as if I ever paid for software on Windows anyway. I donate my fair share to the FSF, FSFE, ORG, no2id, etc.

Underdog: 8
While I don't think Linux's underdog status influences me greatly, I do tend to support the underdog in various situations. But I think this is mainly because I don't feel the need to 'follow the crowd' and my own opinions generally lead me to underdogs.

Community: 7
The community is one of the most important aspects for me. Without it, there could be no Free Software. I don't get to as many LUG meetings as I should, but do try to go to community events (FOSDEM etc.)

Tinkering: 6
I hack the kernel, I try to add missing features to software I use, but give me a soldering iron and something is going to get destroyed...

[tommy]

I doubt anyone cares, but i've been posting on these forums for long enough that I fugure I should maybe tell people a little about myself.

Freedom Crusading: 5
I take 5 to be a fairly neutral score. I don't crusade in the medieval sense. I do make an effort to support free and open standards, I make some effort to make sure all my code under open licenses, and I offer free software to people when they ask me. All this is in a "this is what works for me" fashion, but I don't approach people to preach the gospel of free software. Philosophically, I'm on Aq's side in most LR arguments.

Cheapness: 10
A full ten. I'm a student. I can't afford to buy software. -And if I could, I'd rather spend the money on beer.

Underdog: 7
The underdog status was part of Linux's original appeal and played a big role initially, but its become less and less important as big money got involved. I came here for the underdog, but I stayed for the free Unix.

Community: 5
Having a community that's passionate about its software is really important and what sets us apart from the Windows crowd, but I'm not into the community for the community's sake. However, when a community goes to shit, the software generally tends to follow soon after, so I try to be a good citizen.

Tinkering: 8
I'm not a kernel hacker (yet), but I regularly set up little pointless projects in order to play with cool technology. Who knows. Maybe someday, i'll even play with the kernel.

[lofty]

Freedom crusading: 8 / 3 (depending on what you mean)
I believe pretty strongly that FLOSS is a better way to develop software than the commercial model, both for the people who use it and for people working on it. And I try to use free software unless there's something I really can't do that way (like checking that a website works in Internet Explorer). So on that I'd give myself 8. But I don't go out of my way that much to tell other people about it - I'll mention it if they seem interested, and I'm happy to talk about it, but I'm not going to spend a lot of effort trying to persuade people I don't know that they should be using it. So on that I'd give myself 3. I know this is cheating but I don't care.

Cheapness: 5
Not having to pay money for software is part of my motivation (I'm probably living on less money than most people in this country), but not a big one. What I do like though is just being able to download something and try it out without having to pay money that I might later regret.

Underdog: 7
I think this is a pretty strong thing for me unconsciously at least - I like the story about the plucky little guy taking on the giant and winning. But I guess I wouldn't want to think that I was into linux just for that reason.

Community: 4
I have mixed feelings about this one. I do believe in people trying to work together rather than always competing, but I'd also have to admit that I'm not the most social of people and I have quite a strong individualistic streak as well. And it sometimes annoys me the way people talk about community as if it was some kind of holy thing, when to me this way of talking can actually turn people off and get in the way of things. What I mean I guess is that community is something that maybe people miss in a very individualised society like ours, but then because they don't really know it they talk about it in a very idealised way. Real communities can be oppressive and narrow minded as well as liberating.

Tinkering: 8
This is one of the things I like a lot about free software - it's easier to find out how all the bits work and fit together. Also this is the only category that lets me say that part of the reason I like FLOSS is as far as I can see it's simply better for many of the things I like / want to do. I could have put 9 or 10 here but have to admit that over the last year or two (since I switched from debian to ubuntu), I've done less tinkering and spent more time just using my system to do other things.