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RMS On Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before

Posted by Soulskill on from the we-need-the-power-to-make-those-birds-less-angry dept.

jrepin points out an article by Richard Stallman following up on the 30th anniversary of the start of his efforts on the GNU Project. RMS explains why he thinks we should continue to push for broader adoption of free software principles. He writes, "Much has changed since the beginning of the free software movement: Most people in advanced countries now own computers — sometimes called “phones” — and use the internet with them. Non-free software still makes the users surrender control over their computing to someone else, but now there is another way to lose it: Service as a Software Substitute, or SaaSS, which means letting someone else’s server do your own computing activities. Both non-free software and SaaSS can spy on the user, shackle the user, and even attack the user. Malware is common in services and proprietary software products because the users don’t have control over them. That’s the fundamental issue: while non-free software and SaaSS are controlled by some other entity (typically a corporation or a state), free software is controlled by its users. Why does this control matter? Because freedom means having control over your own life. ... Schools — and all educational activities — influence the future of society through what they teach. So schools should teach exclusively free software, to transmit democratic values and the habit of helping other people. (Not to mention it helps a future generation of programmers master the craft.) To teach use of a non-free program is to implant dependence on its owner, which contradicts the social mission of the school. Proprietary developers would have us punish students who are good enough at heart to share software or curious enough to want to change it."

1 of 319 comments (clear)

  1. Embracing and Extending with RMS by TheloniousCoward · · Score: 1, Troll

    Ain't it silly how RMS embraces and extends acronyms? I was already familiar with "Digital Restrictions Management" for "Digital Rights Management", but "Service as a Software Substitute" for "Software as a Service" was new to me.

    I can't hope to be as good at this sort of thing as Stallman, but let's give it a try. How about "GNU Pollution License" for "GNU Public License"? This recognizes the fact that the GPL pollutes your right to distribute software freely under any terms you like, notably by preventing you from distributing it in compiled form without source code. Then again, maybe that should be "GNU Prevention License".

    Or maybe it should be "GNU Proselytizing License", because once your software has been proselytized into the GPL fold, it gets bundled with your software, presumably to go off and make other converts. May the Borg be with you.

    And what about the "Free Software Foundation"? Let's turn that into the "Fear Software Foundation", since fear mongering seems to be the foundation of the movement.

    Every movement needs a zealot, and every zealot needs a mantra. But RMS's new favorite form of zealotry, embracing and extending acronyms, seems a bit juvenile to me.