[pp.int.general] Pirate Party of Germany chooses proprietary software

[Rick Falkvinge (Piratpartiet)]

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I just want to subtly point out that we DO have free alternatives. Free
as in public domain.

I'll set up a sandbox as I come back from the remote islands where I'm
currently traveling, so you can take a look at it.

It does economy (all economy including taxes, employees, bookkeeping,
and invoicing), member management, roles and access, and
suborganizations. Expect the sandbox in some two weeks or so.

That said, I agree on some aspects with both sides here. I would be
uncomfortable using a closed proprietary systems for guarding confidence
placed in me, as I would not have any way of ensuring that confidence
was safe. I would not be as uncomfortable using closed proprietary
systems where I needed the functionality for my political public work
and there weren't good enough free alternatives yet.

An example would be the LibreOffice presentation application, which
positively sucks compared to Apple's Keynote. (I still use it, but
that's an example of where I would consider using a proprietary
alternative.)

In short, I would never let a choice of technology hamper my ability to
spread the political message. An example would be that I positively hate
Facebook's attitude towards privacy, but I need to be there simply
because that's where the voters are.

I would, however, care about double standards. That's the only thing a
politician can never ever be caught with. The same type of scandal
doesn't stick to all politicians; in the UK, anything with sex is going
to be scandalous, but the head of Australia's "Sex Party" (yes, it
exists) discovered in an orgy is hardly going to make a headline.

In the same way, nobody would raise a single eyebrow if one of us were
charged with copyright infringement (whether true or not). But if we
were to, say, use Microsoft Windows for mission critical tasks and at
the same time require government to stop using it -- now, that would be
a problem.

Cheers,
Rick

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