Sjoerdb93

Dutchie here. You are correct.

Cannabis has never been truly legal in the Netherlands, it's just been decrimninalized. Cannabis is sold in Coffee Shops.

These coffee shops need to pay their taxes, but there's no VAT on cannabis since it's not a legal substance. You are allowed to buy cannabis in coffee shops, but you are not allowed to sell it. You are allowed to carry about 3 grams in public, but you are only allowed to smoke it at home or in coffee shops. Smoking it in public is strictly forbidden. (However, often ignored in Amsterdam or at festivals)

It's a strange system really. Because it's not legal, there's no official source for the coffee shops. Since there's no official source, and selling is illegal, there are no government restrictions on the quality of the cannabis. Neither is it taxed. (Except for the income tax of the coffee shops)

Legalization is the better alternative. It prevents people from going to a dealer, you can put rules on the quality of the stuff and you can even earn money by taxing it. However, legalization is not going to happen unless we get a left-wing government someday. (The entire right wing is against legalization, most right wing parties are even for criminalization)

I admire your answer. It's a virtue when you publicily admit your mistakes.

Even though I deeply admire RMS, I don't really think it's that big as screw-up. To me, RMS seems pretty naive and short-sighted in his extremes. If you want to gain greater succes, it's practically impossible to exclude closed software. It's great if you have a 100% FOSS operating system, but the average user is simply not going to install it if it doesn't work with their video cards. They don't give a crap if it's open or not, it should 'simply work'.

Having the Ubuntu dash giving suggestions from Amazon seems, to me, a way to monetize Ubuntu. Mr. Shuttleworth has a finite supply of money, so you'll need a way to make money, and you need a great user experience if you want succes. Using some closed sources is a comprimise needed to gain that succes. No way my aunt will ever install Ubuntu if she can't watch a DVD, or open an mp3 file on her computer.

In a world where my movement is logged by a foreign country (NSA), logged by a private company (Google Android), where my fingerprints are stored in a private database, where my phone-calls are screened and possibly being listened too, where all my mails are screened, where companies keep a list of all software I installed (EA Origin keeps a list of all installed software on everyone's PC for marketing purposes) etc...

In a world like that, contacting a private server for search results is hardly the worst thing to do.

Making a big fuss, calling names and shouting for a boycot, does seem a bit childish to me. I really do admire his work, and the things he done by the way. But if we ever want to succeed, and gain a decent market share, we need to think pragmatically.

I'd like to end with one quote (from Eric S. Raymond I believe, it was from the Revolution OS documentary): "If you go to a private company and tell them about free software, you have two possibilities. In the best case they'll think 'Free, hmmm, cheap, so it must be rubbish". And in the worst case they'll associate Free Software with the politcal ideals of the Free Software Movement".

Welcome to the Netherlands my friend :)

Cannabis is decriminalized in the Netherlands, but it is not legal strictly speaking. Cannabis is sold in 'coffee shops'. These coffee shops are perfectly legal and have to pay taxes like all other companies. However, there's no VAT over cannabis since it's not a legal substance.

Yeah, but there are different situations for different countries.

WhatsApps has a monopoly-position in the Netherlands. People actually use nothing else, everybody with a smartphone has WhatsApp. I literally don't know anyone who uses an alternative to WhatsApp. (Except for the people without a smartphone, they text, obviously)

I am not hating on the lack of WhatsApp support. I understand how incredibly difficult it is to get developers to support your platform. I actually don't even expect a WhatsApp client ever to be released for Ubuntu Touch.

I actually hope that people will switch to Google Hangouts, since it works on the desktop too, in contrast to WhatsApp. (Which doesn't even work on tablets, let alone any desktop device)

Point is, my phone is important for my daily communications with people. WhatsApp is the main remote communication method, it's way more common than calling or texting. It's a big thing to switch to Ubuntu Touch just to try it out, switching to plain text (which is the only alternative) is simply too expensive for me. So switching to Ubuntu Touch is simply too much of an inconvenience.

The thing holding me back from trying it out is the lack of WhatsApp support. People don't do text messages anymore in the Netherlands, almost everything is done on Whatsapp. (It's more convenient, due to group conversations, you can send all sorts of media, and a text message quickly costs 15-20 cents, where Whatsapp costs 80 cents a year)

If you ever get Whatsapp far enough to support Ubuntu Touch, I will definitely give it a go on my Galaxy Nexus. (Even though it won't be supported from now) I think it's a thing that's holding a lot of Europeans back to be honest.