Montreal Tech Watch

This post start a series about Free Software in Québec, as SQIL 2007, or Semaine Québecoise de l’Informatique Libre starts tomorrow Saturday 15th. I have asked several questions by email to Robin Millette. He has a lot to say, so there will be a second part very soon.

Can you present yourself and your day-to-day work? What is or was your role with SQIL?

Robin Millette, one of the founders of FACIL and initiator of the SQIL in 2004. I program all sorts of web tools, like my recent database of DSL coverage in Québec municipalities. In short, I’m trying to come up with ideas and working prototypes first, and clients, partners and financing later.

I was coordinating the Québec Free Software Week (Semaine québécoise de l’informatique libre, or SQIL) the first three years. That basically means getting people to participate, organize events, figuring a budget (if we ever make a flyer or poster or …), setting up and maintaining a website, writing and translating a lot, etc.

After giving it a go again this year, I decided it was wiser to use my time otherwise and take a back seat. After exchanging a few messages with participating organizations, we finally settled on the 3rd Saturday of September to hold the SQIL, aligning ourselves with the
international Software Freedom Day. I quickly launched a participative Drupal website, expecting early collaboration from various parties. Maxime Dupuis wrote the first announcement and call for participation which was translated by Patricia Campbell and the ball was in motion.

After that, I stayed on the curb, except for a few directions I gave in response to direct inquiries.

Why did you adopt Free Software? Many people think it’s just too cumbersome and the most important thing is to get the tool that does the job.

Cumbersome? I’m hardly a typical user, mostly hovering over VIM, a MySQL client or other terminal applications, with a thin wrapped called WMII (Windw Manager Improved 2). I’m also a developper, and that’s a whole other set of weirdness all to itself.

I like the choice (not to confuse with the freedom) I have as a user. I can have any plumber work on my house’s plumbing, there are no cheap tricks to lure my loyalty and hook me to a single vendor. In the same way, I prefer to pay or get paid for my time and my work, not for
licencing fees or royalties.

I use GNU/Linux (yeah, I still call it that, or just “linux” (with quotes) when I feel like it) and settled on Debian 5 or 6 years ago after trying out a few distributions. Ah, choice. One thing that kept me away from GNU/Linux for a long time is I was afraid to spend too much time debugging and improving the software I needed, sending patches, keeping up with development and documentation. Fortunately for me (but unfortunate for the community, I guess), that wasn’t too much of a problem.

Before switching permanently to GNU/Linux, I was already sold to the idea of freedom as an important aspect of human life. I first heard of the Free Software Foundation and League of Programming Freedom about 20 years ago and quickly grew fond of the GNU utilities, although I was using Windows at the time.

It’s important to point out that most free software or open source software is multiplatform, meaning it probably runs on your platform, be it Windows, Mac, GNU/Linux or *BSD.

Free software isn’t built to be hard to use or for programmers only. I’d like to dispell that myth. I already mentionned I haven’t dabbled (nor did I have to) in much of the source of the software I use. If there’s a useful command line program, you can bet someone will build an interface for it. Sometimes, you can even pick between a graphical or terminal interface.

3. This year’s theme is sustainable development. How can Free Software contribute? Isn’t sustainable development associated with the natural environment?

Ah, but is the market sustainable? A free market of plumbers :)

Specifically, I was thinking of a software’s lifetime. One thing that free software achieves rather well is community building. In time, it’s the community as a whole which takes responsibility for the sustainability of any piece of software.

Local development is also an important aspect to sustainable development. Just in Québec, there are over 200 companies and consultants providing services for various aspects of free software, from training to deployment to hosting, development and customization.

Québec can also play an important role with regards to translation of software. I know part of the Mandriva documentation team is based in Montreal and Suse is in the final review stage for its French certification by the Office québécois de la langue française.