German Linux Community Boycotting LinuxTag

em8chel writes "LinuxTag, Germany's major fair for Linux and Free Software, is facing a massive boycott from open source enthusiasts in the country this year. Although the event doesn't open for a week, the community is voicing their anger and disappointment on various forums about this year's LinuxTag running under the auspices of Wolfgang Schaeuble, the conservative Minister of Interior, whose positions on issues of interest to the community are controversial to say the very least. Due to online protests and calls for a boycott, the organizer of LinuxTag has released a statement (German version, serviceable Google translation), holding that the politician's policies and political views have nothing to do with supporting free software, adding that if the community boycotts LinuxTag, it's the open source software that will be hit the hardest, and that Schaeuble probably won't even notice."

Comments

Yep. That makes perfect sense.

[Anonymous Coward]

There's no point being politically active if the target of your activism probably won't even notice. May as well just put up with it and get on with your life.

Wrong.

Anyone with money invested in the event will notice, and I'm sure the backlash from the grass roots users will convince them they should rethink their associations in future. seeing they are the people with the money, they are the only people who can make the Minister notice.

Figures in power are directly unreachable to the common man, but we can impact on them indirectly.

From the linux community to the interior minister:
Nuts!

Re:Seems Silly.

[Opportunist]

There are some people I don't want as friends.

I can understand where this security-craze he's in comes from. Maybe I'd react similar if I was nearly shot. He's terrified. He sees terrorists and assassins everywhere, and he wants to protect himself and his country from them. It makes sense. And actually I do even feel pity for him.

Usually, though, such people seek professional help, not a political career. When you look at his recent decisions and law suggestions, it doesn't border anymore on paranoia, it's way beyond that border.

Wrong reaction

[ericferris]

That's just a politician who wants to generate PR by attending an event that contains lots of buzzwords ("this Linux thingy and these computers and technology, that's trendy, let's attend"). But he doesn't own the LinuxTag. By staging a boycott, the German OSS crowd gives him a de facto ownership of the event.

I'd still boycott it to set a sign.

[bursch-X]

How would you like it to hear stuff like:

This surveillance camera and its motion detector was brought to you by Linux!
Or BigBrother 2007, it can't be evil, it's all open source!

I don't want this fucker (Schäuble) to be associated with anything FOSS.

Re:I'd still boycott it to set a sign.

[zappepcs]

I don't know if it's just me, but lately there seem to be a lot of people around the world that are making their voices heard either via the Internet or boycotts etc. This is nothing but a good thing, and I hope that the German people are able to send a message loud enough to be heard by all concerned.

Mr Orwell's Big Brother and F/OSS really don't need to be friends...

Re:To give you an idea who this is

[PopeRatzo]

Sometimes, despicable people will try to gain credibility by associating themselves with an honorable institution. We see it with radical Right Wingers in the US associating themselves with Jesus Christ even though old JC would probably have put his size 9 sandal up the crack of their asses.

Take this Falwell monster who just croaked. He had no problem rubbing bellies with death squads and dictators in Central and South America and apartheid leaders, and then turning around and acting holy at a prayer breakfast with Presidents who were too scared of his well-fed, smug and judgmental ass to throw him the fuck out like they should have. Did you see all the Republican presidential candidates falling over themselves trying to compare him to Ghandi and Martin Luther King?

I'm just guessing, but I've got a feeling that about 10 seconds after he died, he got the shock of his life when instead of seeing St. Peter, he met the dude with hooves. I'm hoping it was the South Park version of Satan, too.

If the Linux community boycotts LinuxTag, it's not going to hurt them one bit. In fact, standing up for what's right could make a lot of people take notice of them, especially with moral courage being in such short supply these days.

It's Not "SchaeubleTag"

[Doc Ruby]

if the community boycotts LinuxTag, it's the open source software that will be hit the hardest, and that Schaeuble probably won't even notice

That sounds like exactly the reason Schaeuble is a bad sponsor for the event. And exactly what people of conscience do, that corporations don't - one of the crucial differences between Linux and other OS'es, like OSX and Windows.

And it sounds like it's LinuxTag which should notice their community rebelling, not their pet Minister who doesn't care at all about either of them.

Re:German Linux Community?

[A beautiful mind]

Sadly too many people think that all there is to a representative democracy is to vote once every four years and then the government can do whatever it likes without any repecussions.