5.1 Please do not send proprietary attachments

This is a transcript of a form letter
i have been threatening to set
my mailer to send when it detects
certain kinds of attachments in my
incoming mail.

Hello. As a matter of principle my email agent is set not to accept mail containing attached files that use a proprietary data format.

This is an automated reply. I have not seen the message you sent and do not know you sent it, so please do not take this message personally! My computer found that the email you sent contains an attachment that uses a proprietary data format (something like Microsoft Word’s ‘.doc’ format, perhaps) and:

1. Sent you this reply
2. Deleted the email

Most, if not all emailers will allow you to find the email you sent in something like a ‘sent mail’ folder. Please resend the email—i do want to hear from you! But please, don’t send attachments in formats that are non-standard, closed and proprietary.

If there is a serious problem, send me another email describing the problem, but without the attachment and we’ll talk.

You do not have to read anything below here, but i include some further information for your interest or use.

-Þorne

CONTENTS:

• HELP WITH COMMON PROPRIETARY FORMATS
• WHY ALL THIS?
• ALTERNATE SOFTWARE SOURCES

HELP WITH COMMON PROPRIETARY FORMATS

Probably the most commonly sent proprietary file format are Microsoft Word files. If you are trying to send a file in Microsoft Word format, you can usually select File -> Save As and then select a file format to save in, such as standard ASCII text (best, if possible) or HTML. Then send that file.

WHY ALL THIS?

If you know me at all well then you know that i am a screaming Ayn Rand-style capitalist and that i have absolutely nothing against ‘big business’ and nothing against companies that choose to try to make money by producing software. I do find it irritating and somewhat reprehensible that some companies choose to prey on the ignorance of the less informed and less computer-savvy segment of the population, but so long as they are not forcing anyone to use their software, i support to the death their right to write the software, copyright it and sell it under whatever terms they choose and their customers voluntarily accept.

But just as i support McDonald’s Corporation’s right to sell low-quality, virulently unhealthy, foul-tasting food, i also try not to eat there unless i have to, and i would not encourage other’s to do so, and i would not eat a Big Mac that someone sent me. Similarly, though i support the right of creators of proprietary software (of which Microsoft Corporation is only one example) to do what they do (in a general sense), i know better than to limit my freedom to use my computer the way i want to by using or supporting their products.

Therefore, you may think of this as a boycott.

Microsoft et al have made certain elements of computing very easy. Word and Excel are quick and easy to digest. But learning to use more powerful tools, while it can take longer, brings greater rewards: freedom to do what you want to do with your computer, not only what a software company says you can do—a company who may or may not have your best interests in mind.

Proprietary data formats are the result of using proprietary end-user software (as distinct from software that is proprietary in the sense that it is used by an organization to implement in-house business practices). When you use a program like Microsoft Word or Coda Finale you hurt yourself by limiting your future ability to manipulate and control the data you produce—what if the new version of the program doesn’t read the old format?—what if you can’t afford to upgrade?—what if you need to do something with the data not foreseen by the paid developers? And you hurt everyone else by supporting the mechanism that perpetuates the cultural dominance of proprietary, closed-source software. By being part of the silent majority who send email attachments in MS Word format you help to support a situation in which many do not even know that there are better, smarter, more flexible and powerful and yes, cheaper alternatives.

Computer languages make concrete our abstractions about process and procedure. Just as mathematical symbology allows us to reason abstractly about the science of measurement, so programming languages leverage our natural linguistic ability to reason about methodology—an innovation with consequence of historic proportions grasped by few, even among the geeks. The time when it was possible to be computer-illiterate in modern society is fast ending, and the temporary crutches invented to ease the transition—such as inflexible ‘point-and-click’ interfaces and insulation from anything remotely resembling programming—are fast becoming as much a hindrance to progress—to your progress—as they once were a support. Just as learning the basics of driving a car or manipulating algebraic formulas are simply preconditions of living as an intelligent, mature human in modern society, so now is knowing the basics of how to speak the language of process and procedure to computers—i.e., programming. Do not fear it—embrace it! Most of what you see in the world of computers today is layer upon layer of metaphor, circumlocution and approximation, the goal of which is to insulate you from the responsibility of understanding a little of what are, in essence, simple machines, and from the knowledge that using a computer and programming a computer are fundamentally synonymous.

Non-proprietary, free software (‘free’ here used as in freedom, not as in beer) tends to come with the price of knowing something about the use of your computer. Such is the price of living in our age. The price of not embracing this reality is to live, to the extent you require the use of a computer, at the mercy of those who do speak the language of computers.

It does not require a large vocabulary or extensive training. Just the willingness not to take the quick and easy way out.

ALTERNATE SOFTWARE SOURCES

Since you sent me an email i will assume you have access to the Internet and can use a search engine like google.com for further information about what is below. And of course, i can’t say everything you might want to know here. But a couple of pointers might help:

1. Get GNU Emacs and use it. All roads lead to Emacs. All roads lead from Emacs. Emacs is a text editor that some have called (with varying degrees of tongue-in-cheek) a religion. Emacs will change the way you approach computing exactly to the degree that you allow yourself to learn about it.
2. Learn some lisp. Lisp is, in the words of writer Neal Stephenson, the only beautiful programming language. Learning a little lisp (even just a little) is a mind-altering experience and thankfully goes hand-in-hand with learning Emacs, because Emacs uses lisp the same way that MS Word uses Visual Basic for Applications—like an extension language. But in the case of Emacs the integration is much more total, because Emacs is itself written mostly in its own language. Lisp is Emacs. Emacs is lisp. Emacs is a text editor written in lisp and Emacs lisp is a programming language implemented in the text editor Emacs.
3. Get a distribution of GNU/Linux and install it and learn your way around it. Debian Linux used to have a reputation for only including free, non-proprietary software—try that. It includes access to thousands of free programs for almost any use you can imagine. And while the general philosophy of computing in UNIX-like operating systems like Linux is a little messy compared to the Emacs philosophy, it beats the Microsoft way. Or of all things, the Apple way.

Good luck, and see if you can produce a version of whatever it was you tried to send me using free software and open data formats. You never know what you might learn.