Here are some extracts from an interview to Richard Stallman on January of this year by Jeremy Andrews of KernelTrap.org, followed by some comments of my own. Here is the link to the complete interview": http://kerneltrap.org/node/4484
"JA: You regularly have to explain the differences between "free software" and "open source software", and yet the media continues to confuse these terms. For our readers that may therefor be confused themselves, can you explain the differences, and why it is important to get it right? Richard Stallman: Free software and open source are the slogans of two different movements with different philosophies. In the free software movement, our goal is to be free to share and cooperate. We say that non-free software is antisocial because it tramples the users' freedom, and we develop free software to escape from that. JA: How do you react to the opinion that non-free software is justified as a means for raising dollars that can then be put into the development of completely new software, money that otherwise may not have been available, and thus creating software that may have never been developed? Richard Stallman: This is no justification at all. A non-free program systematically denies the users the freedom to cooperate; it is the basis of an antisocial scheme to dominate people. The program is available lawfully only to those who will surrender their freedom. That's not a contribution to society, it's a social problem. It is better to develop no software than to develop non-free software. So if you find yourself in that situation, please don't follow that path. Please don't write the non-free program--please do something else instead. We can wait till someone else has the chance to develop a free program to do the same job. JA: What about the programmers... Richard Stallman: What about them? The programmers writing non-free software? They are doing something antisocial. They should get some other job." -So, I guess that, since I intend to produce non-free software at some point in my career, I am an antisocial, I am taking away by clients' freedom, I should not be a programmer and I should look for another job. "JA: Do you consider it proper for people who are trying to only use free software to utilize... Richard Stallman: To connect to a server that's running non-free software? I don't feel I need to refuse to connect to a server that is running non-free software. For that matter, I won't refuse to type on a computer that's running non-free software. If I were visiting your house for a little and you had a Windows machine, I would use it if it were important for me to use it. I wouldn't be willing to have Windows on my computer, and you shouldn't have it on yours, but I can't change that by refusing to touch the machine." -Keep it in mind, you SHOULDN'T run Windows on your computer. Please uninstall it ipsofacto. "JA: What if your job requires you to use non-free software? Richard Stallman: I would quit that job. Would you participate in something anti-social just because somebody pays you to? What if the job involves hitting people on the head in the street and taking their wallets? What if it involves spreading the word that Democrats should vote on Wednesday instead of Tuesday? Some people seriously claim that you can't criticize what someone does if it is part of their job. From my point of view, the fact that somebody is being paid to do something wrong is not an excuse." -I know that many members of the UUG work in the Windows platform. You guys should quit your jobs immediately. Here are some of Stallman's ideas (with some of my sarcasm included). Judge by yourselves whether he goes too far or not. Chris Alvarez -------------------- BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
