[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Edlug Archive May 2004
]
Re: [edlug] Stallman's talk
On Thu, 27 May 2004, michael calwell wrote:
> 1: Assuming that people are fully aware of the issues, are fully aware
> of the implications of their choices, shouldn't people be free to choose
> non-free software? That, to my mind, is a basic freedom. Similarly, to
> write and develop non-free software? IMHO, there's something essentially
> contradictory in his message that Free Software is innately better than
> proprietary software, and that you shouldn't develop software along
> proprietary models. It's like suggesting that you should codeify and
> enforce Darwinism.
I never heard Richard Stallman suggest that you're not free to make these
choices, rather he's suggesting that you to *choose* to use free software,
and giving reasons why. None of those reasons were technical - in fact he
went out of his way to say that technical quilities should not be your
main basis for choosing free software.
> 2: It's completely throwing the baby out with the bathwater and frankly
> immoral to suggest to a guy who works for a charity that he shouldn't
> work for that charity because they happen to use Microsoft Windows. We
> have to live in the real world and make a crust - we can't all be
> Richard Stallman and make a good living out of being poor and preaching
> about Free Software. Furthermore, suggesting that a Free Software
> advocate can't work for a company that uses proprietary products is like
> telling a priest that they can't work with sinners. It only compounds
> the problem.
He was asked, in this instance, for his viewpoint, and that's what he
gave, the point being that there are no (well, very few) circumstances
where it is acceptable to agree to the licensing conditions of most
proprietary software, and that it's a bigger issue than the current
occupation of any one person.
That's what I heard anyway, and we must have been in the same room!
Kevin
-
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can find the EdLUG mailing list FAQ list at:
http://www.edlug.org.uk/list_faq.html