Re: [DC3] RES: Community Network Manual

Hello all: Congratulations for the document. Please provide the link for the digital version when it is available. I hope it is free and not only gratis. Dear Maureen: Regarding your comment... El 2018-11-09 05:53, Maureen Hernandez escribió: many templates allowing for all of us with no decent design skills to appear less clumsy on that matter. I would like to give some information about this software. I suggest to avoid it because it is non-free software. This is what their website says: Design Use license. This license is similar to the old One-time use license, but there is no 24 hour limit on use. You can continue to use and export the media you have licensed multiple times provided it is only used within the one design and you otherwise comply with the terms of the license. And also this: brand or team. And many other draconian terms specified in: https://about.canva.com/license-agreements/ https://about.canva.com/terms-of-use/ So, it is not free software. Software which is gratis (no cost) and/or web-based (if it is not hosted on machines that you control) subjugates and divides its users. Hence it is not good however ease or functionality it may have. (I can give more information on this if you need it.) Even if a software has less functionality, is difficult or costs more, it is always better to choose freedom over those other illusions of "good". If you decide to use it or promote it, please consider this and inform your audience about these problems. I have little experience with design software. But a quick search on directory.fsf.org shows these free softwares: GIMP Blender MyPaint Inkscape with Darktable Tux Paint Heck, it is possible to make a flyer with Libre Office. My personal choice is the most difficult and less graphical, even if the learning curve is steeper. Why?: - More power - More knowledge of how to do more things with it in the future - Less clutter - Works on the oldest computer - If I am interested enough, I can learn how to modify it to do other things I need - Available for more operating systems - Not all functionality that a software has is available with the icons on the graphical interface - Personalization of configuration for repetitive uses So if I would be willing to make a flyer, I would not make it now. I would take a month or more to learn the most difficult but functional and free (as in freedom, of course) software, without caring about the monetary cost as long as I could afford it. If I would need the flyer now (as apparently is the case in this thread), I would rather ask a friend to do it with free software or pay someone to do it with free software. My last choice would be to ask someone to do it with non free software just for this time, until I can learn or find someone to do it with free software. Learning anything is easy...it just takes more time and persistence for more complex stuff. But it pays! (It pays in money too. But I did not mean that.) My software choice would be one which works on a text-only interface and without mouse. Perhaps I'd find a way with Emacs. This would not have been my decision fifteen years ago. It would have been the opposite. Freedom is more important than any other consideration because it is a better decision on the long run. Using free software is not a decision for poor or practical people. CHOOSING FREE SOFTWARE IS A DECISION OF SMART AND PRUDENT HUMAN BEINGS. Maureen: Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to show this information about free software. Please do not feel offended. I have done this with the sole intention of helping you. If it is not useful, please disregard it. Saluton, Quiliro