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Summary: Dr. Richard Stallman, the Free Software Foundation’s founder, talks about the dawn of days in the GNU project

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Summary: Dr. Richard Stallman, the Free Software Foundation’s founder, explains the perception that popularity alone — not level of freedom — counts when it comes to free/libre software

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T lies in many areas of its business, ranging from DPI (sniffing) to alleged back doors in its equipment (for surveillance). Well, BT support, both the technical and non-technical side that is, also makes some false promises and utters sheer lies that serve an agenda, usually covering up misconduct and incompetence. I have given numerous examples over the years.

My latest encounters with BT show that it is negligent and incompetent at the core, going all the way up to management. As pointed out some while ago, BT is still failing to send something it says with great clarity that it is sending (false promises which complicate things more than honest refusals) and when contacted two weeks later it has no record of the promise or any explanation. What’s more, a manager then fails to call back when (second lie) he said he would and when approached about it he merely makes another false promise (sending he would sent something, but never actually doing so).

If BT wants to lie to people to their faces (and managers do that too), what does that say about BT’s attitude towards clients?

The truth of the matter is that here in the UK swapping ISPs can involve weeks — yes, weeks if not a whole month — staying online (while landline changes assignment to brand of ‘choice’), so to drop one ISP for another is a big deal, especially if you work from home over the Internet (as my wife and I do). All I can do is warn others about BT. Avoid, boycott, ridicule. BT does not deserve to be in business.

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Summary: Dr. Richard Stallman, the Free Software Foundation’s founder, explains naming conventions for Linux/GNU (which most people just call “Linux”)

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Summary: Dr. Richard Stallman, the Free Software Foundation’s founder, explains how code was managed and contributed in the early days of GNU

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ODAY I was supposed to receive a callback from a BT supervisor over a problem that I had reported. The problem was a false promise from BT that they would send a letter. Why make a promise if they’re not going to do anything? That in itself is an enigma.

Well, for the second time in less than a year I needed to stay home during working hours in order to receive a callback about this issue (a case of BT support incompetence) and the supervisor seemingly ‘forgot’ to call.

I am writing about all these terrible experiences in order to warn people who consider becoming BT customers.

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Summary: Dr. Richard Stallman, the Free Software Foundation’s founder, explains how GNU programs were developed and released in the early eighties

Made entirely using Free/libre software, heavily compressed for performance on the Web at quality’s expense