Buongiorno, uno studente polacco che ha lottato con le unghie e coi denti per laurearsi senza usare software proprietario. ...e a uno studente così non gliele vogliamo dare un paio di lauree ad honorem in «Diritto» e «Scienze Politiche»?!? Professori di informatica cosa rispondete a questa constatazione: «As I mentioned earlier, despite being highly knowledgeable computer scientists and experienced in informatics, many academics demonstrated a generally poor understanding of the politics and ethics around software.» ? «How I Fought To Graduate Without Using Nonfree Software» by Wojciech Kosior https://www.gnu.org/education/how-i-fought-to-graduate-without-using-non-fre... --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- Because I refuse to use unethical software, the complete reliance on proprietary platforms has created an ethical conflict. My aim has been to complete my university degree without surrendering to the imposed nonfree services, by convincing my professors[2] to allow me to use only free-software replacements to proprietary applications. I didn't expect to win a fight against such power, but now, through polite but firm action, I think I may have prevailed. Hopefully this story will help you resist too. [...] Replies urging me to “run the program in a virtual machine” or saying that I “don't need the source code to use the service,” made it clear that some of my professors didn't understand, or understood only part of the issues. Had I been studying anything other than informatics, I suspect the fraction of those who understood the problem would be far smaller. [...] Not knowing whether the university would recognize my principles was a cause of ongoing stress. [...] I believe every class should at minimum be offered ways to interoperate with libre tools so that students can at least read class assignments on free platforms, and upload their answers from them. Unless universities offer interoperability, the reliance on proprietary software costs both students and professors time and headaches. At one point I emailed two professors about the use of nonfree platforms for lectures. One didn't respond and the other replied rudely. They seemed not to understand, but I suspect they were avoiding any extra work. This had a corrosive impact on my engagement and I stopped caring about lectures. Avoiding a language-specific package manager that I felt put me at risk of security and freedom issues cost me considerable time and delayed my studies. Time is precious for us all. [...] It is not necessarily the functional aspects of the software that creates friction around lack of software freedom. During the summer I had to do an internship. I backed out of a paid offer after learning that the employer would make make my code nonfree. I eventually did another, unpaid internship. [...] Before the winter semester, a list of allowed videoconferencing platforms that comply with the data protection law was given to professors. It contained Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, ClickMeeting, and Google Meet. You will surely see the irony here! [...] As I mentioned earlier, despite being highly knowledgeable computer scientists and experienced in informatics, many academics demonstrated a generally poor understanding of the politics and ethics around software. [...] Later, one professor who didn't agree to let me pass a course without using Teams wanted to fail me for my “absences,” despite my uploading homework throughout the semester. After a protracted argument, I was offered an option to meet online on January 8th... on Teams! I politely refused again, and reiterated my points. The professor eventually CC'd the Associate Dean in an email. In the meantime, the deadline to upload my thesis for a January defense expired. After many reminder emails, a response finally came, and through the Dean's intercession I got a grade, passed my seventh semester and successfully defended my thesis in March. [...] We can see some people are intolerant to software freedom principles, but in the end those were few and most university staff at the AGH were actually kind to me. Thanks to them I now have a proof that it is possible to study, graduate... indeed to live without relying on proprietary software. After all this hard experience, I feel more independent than ever, and I even received appreciation from the well-known RMS. Hopefully, my story will help more students get to where I am. Struggling to run only libre programs forced, and continues to force me, to gain new skills. I now know enough about web technologies to make several sites function without JavaScript. But what is best about my experience is that I will be able to share my fixes with others and eventually make a subset of the World Wide Web usable in freedom. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- RMS in persona è rimasto impressionato https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-gnu/2021-04/msg00005.html Saluti, Giovanni. -- Giovanni Biscuolo Noi, incompetenti come siamo, non abbiamo alcun titolo per suggerire alcunché.