Re: [Trisquel-users] How does one respond to this statement?

[leestrobel]

For me, the key fallacy here is the mistaken belief that 'software is the  
consequence of substantial risk-taking and investment on the part of firms'.  
Software doesn't have to be that way. Free software is the consequence of  
many people working together voluntarily, as part of a community movement,  
with no interaction at all with large firms. Anyone with a computer can pick  
up a keyboard and write some software - possibly contribute to a larger free  
software project.

The GNU/Linux operating system and most of the packages that comprise it are  
manifest counter-examples that disprove their point, that software patents  
are essential for software development (e.g. Firefox, X11, GNOME, LibreOffice  
...).