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Comment by microtonal | Hacker News Reader

So, what kind of campaign do you think they should be doing?

Why not stand outside an Apple store and hand out DVDs under the motto 'here, free software for your new Mac'? Put LibreOffice, VirtualBox, Adium, and whatnot on it. Insert a flyer explaining what 'free software' means and suggest that they can donate to these projects if they like the software.

Sure, they will be running one OS X. But one step at a time is better than 99% thinking there were approached by nerd Hare Krishnas (nothing against Hinduism, it's about perception).

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That is certainly one possibility, but I have my doubts regarding the actual effectiveness in convince people to change their minds about their consumer habits.

The thing is: the FSF is supposed to be "nerd Hare Krishnas". They don't - rather, they shouldn't - want to compromise. They are advocating Free Software. Not open source. Not consumer-friendly gadgets. Not "cool things that Apple can't do". They will preach that using anything Apple is wrong, and they are rightfully voicing their views.

Besides the cost issue, would you install software from a DVD someone just handed you in the street?

Few Macs are sold with DVD drives these days. I'm pretty sure the vast majority would share the fate of the old AOL CD.

You're definitely right here, I don't think the pro line does anymore and the air never has. Small USB sticks aren't much more expensive, however. Especially if you get something as tiny as 256MB and just have a network based installer tool for all the free software distributed.

This is actually a pretty good idea, except for the fact that most new Macs don't come with DVD drives these days.

I used to work at the FSF, and I wrote this: http://www.fsf.org/working-together/moving

Admittedly, not on a disk, but a nice flyer or something for this would be good.

A dvd is not a good idea, but I don't think people know about those options (LibreOffice etc), so even a nicely made flyer or postcard with very clear instructions may genuinely make a lot of people very very happy.

"But if it's running on my Mac, I think I'll just use the iWork suite, and Messages - they are 'free' in the App Store"...

LibreOffice is one of the biggest pieces of trash I have ever used. You must be joking.

I use it as a canonical example of unusable software.

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