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Richard Stallman
Oct. 13th, 2004 02:38 amWent to a talk by Richard Stallman, brilliant founder of the Free Software Foundation, creator of emacs, instigator of and one of the main programmers for the GNU project, and the person who gave us the pivotal GPL, the GNU General Public License, which uses the force of law to guarantee your freedoms.
It was a great talk. I've seen him talk 5 years before in Melbourne. This time was in Brisbane. I love the way he explains clearly, and step by step, what freedom is and isn't, and why it is important. For instance he pointed out that freedom is not simply freedom of choice, because that often means little more than choosing who will have mastery over you. True freedom means not having to bow to any master.
He implored people to remove all unfree software from their machines and replace it with free software -- not free as in free beer; free as in freedom (though it is often available at no cost too). Free software is defined by these key points:
- freedom to run a program
- freedom to share a program
- freedom to change a program
- freedom to publish the changes
His emphasis was upon building a good society. The choices we all make determine what kind of society we create. If we all relinquish our freedoms then we become a bound society where freedom is just a memory. We -- all of us -- need to work towards the kind of society we want and the kind of world we want for our children. If you buy unfree software then it places you in a bad position when a friend asks you for a copy of it. If you share the program then you are violating the conditions under which it was bought. If you choose not to share then you are being antisocial. Either way you do wrong. Your only way out of the quandary is to use free software.
But although the decision is primarily a moral one, it is clear that choosing freedom also has many other advantages. Free software can be built upon by many people to produce higher quality with less bugs. The improvements tend also be driven by the users themselves to fit their actual needs. Security is enhanced by free software too. Spyware, backdoors, and other malicious code can't survive in free software. If you use programs like WindowsXP and Windows MediaPlayer, you are spied upon by Microsoft. These programs inform Microsoft of all the software you have on your machine, what words you search for on your machine, what video files you view. There are many other examples of spyware and other malware out there, but your only choices are to use them or not. This isn't the case with free software. If anybody was foolish enough to try to hide spyware inside free software it wouldn't last long. As soon as it was noticed someone would strip it out and re-release the software without the nasty part. That can't be done with non-free software.
When people speak of Linux they generally mean the operating system, but Linux is really just one component of the largely GNU operating system. He asked that people refer to it as GNU/Linux rather than just Linux. Calling it simply Linux directs people away from the free software philosophy which brought them this cool stuff. Keeping "GNU" in the name ensures people find out that morality is a practical thing as well as about being a good person.
He spoke on a number of other things and there were a lot of laughs too as he joked and kidded. It was a great evening. If you get a chance to see him talk then I suggest you do.
And get rid of all your unfree software. What you do now determines whether you and your children live in a good and free society or one where you are owned from cradle to grave.
It was a great talk. I've seen him talk 5 years before in Melbourne. This time was in Brisbane. I love the way he explains clearly, and step by step, what freedom is and isn't, and why it is important. For instance he pointed out that freedom is not simply freedom of choice, because that often means little more than choosing who will have mastery over you. True freedom means not having to bow to any master.
He implored people to remove all unfree software from their machines and replace it with free software -- not free as in free beer; free as in freedom (though it is often available at no cost too). Free software is defined by these key points:
- freedom to run a program
- freedom to share a program
- freedom to change a program
- freedom to publish the changes
His emphasis was upon building a good society. The choices we all make determine what kind of society we create. If we all relinquish our freedoms then we become a bound society where freedom is just a memory. We -- all of us -- need to work towards the kind of society we want and the kind of world we want for our children. If you buy unfree software then it places you in a bad position when a friend asks you for a copy of it. If you share the program then you are violating the conditions under which it was bought. If you choose not to share then you are being antisocial. Either way you do wrong. Your only way out of the quandary is to use free software.
But although the decision is primarily a moral one, it is clear that choosing freedom also has many other advantages. Free software can be built upon by many people to produce higher quality with less bugs. The improvements tend also be driven by the users themselves to fit their actual needs. Security is enhanced by free software too. Spyware, backdoors, and other malicious code can't survive in free software. If you use programs like WindowsXP and Windows MediaPlayer, you are spied upon by Microsoft. These programs inform Microsoft of all the software you have on your machine, what words you search for on your machine, what video files you view. There are many other examples of spyware and other malware out there, but your only choices are to use them or not. This isn't the case with free software. If anybody was foolish enough to try to hide spyware inside free software it wouldn't last long. As soon as it was noticed someone would strip it out and re-release the software without the nasty part. That can't be done with non-free software.
When people speak of Linux they generally mean the operating system, but Linux is really just one component of the largely GNU operating system. He asked that people refer to it as GNU/Linux rather than just Linux. Calling it simply Linux directs people away from the free software philosophy which brought them this cool stuff. Keeping "GNU" in the name ensures people find out that morality is a practical thing as well as about being a good person.
He spoke on a number of other things and there were a lot of laughs too as he joked and kidded. It was a great evening. If you get a chance to see him talk then I suggest you do.
And get rid of all your unfree software. What you do now determines whether you and your children live in a good and free society or one where you are owned from cradle to grave.