Fwd: [sf-uk-discuss] GNU/Linux users - sign petition to say you use BBC web site!

[Tristan Wibberley]

On Sat, 2007-11-03 at 17:59 +1100, Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote:

> Given the expectation that most BBC investment benefit the domestic market, it 
> is important that we prove that there are many local residents who access BBC 
> resources using free software. Including international visitors in the same 
> figures will only dilute the message.

We don't need to prove that we access BBC websites to prove that they
should provide us with BBC television content, we need to prove:

1) that we have a TV license,
2) that we have a computer with appropriate hardware and software that
they, or someone else, can re-program enough to receive and display the
content as the BBC has for Windows,
3) that the software is Ubuntu,
4) that Ubuntu is small in the home computer OS market because it is a
new and growing product in that market - that it has not died (eg,
through natural market forces). This is the biggy - BBC executives are
*explicitly* and *ferociously* banned from affecting content recipient
markets (and probably others). Former Microsoft media executives now at
the BBC (as variously reported) excluding Microsoft's biggest or second
biggest home computer competitor from a service that is essential for
home computer users just because it hasn't targeted UK home computer
users until very recently would be very, very wrong. This is because I
am legally *forbidden* from going elsewhere for television content - I
*have* to buy the BBC's service if I buy so much as *one* TV service.

That Dell has very recently started offering Ubuntu on its home desktops
is very strong evidence that the market is making Ubuntu grow and the
BBC should, therefore, not be an opposing force.

-- 
Tristan Wibberley

Any opinion expressed is mine (or else I'm playing devils advocate for
the sake of a good argument). My employer had nothing to do with this
communication.