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| Richard Stallman Was Right All Along |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2012-01-02 19:12:50 |
| Late last year, president Obama signed a law that makes it possible to indefinitely detain terrorist suspects without any form of trial or due process. Peaceful protesters in Occupy movements all over the world have been labelled as terrorists by the authorities. Initiatives like SOPA promote diligent monitoring of communication channels. Thirty years ago, when Richard Stallman launched the GNU project, and during the three decades that followed, his sometimes extreme views and peculiar antics were ridiculed and disregarded as paranoia - but here we are, 2012, and his once paranoid what-ifs have become reality. |
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| What a great article to start the new year... |
| By porcel on 2012-01-02 19:34:21 |
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It takes a big man to admit that he has been wrong in the past about someone or something. To reflect critically on one´s closely held beliefs and past actions is what truly separate average from great men. This reflection should guide the choices we all make going forward (the products we recommend and support). People who trust our judgment see what we use as a guide for what to use and, therefore, we should be mindful of the important consequences that our choice of technology has on the world around us. For the same reasons that you mention in the article, I have long championed free and open source software. I too believe that there would come a time when so much of our social, economic and cultural interactions would be tied to a computer, be it in the form of a phone, laptop, tablet or any other device. Being the sovereign owner of that computer by knowing what it does or relying in a community of peers for that service is the only way to guarantee your freedom and by extension, and because of the network effect of the choices we make, that of your friends and family. Celebrate and participate in free software. Choose it where you can. Free software has never been more powerful or easier to use and it keeps getting better year after year. Happy New Year everyone. Ps: Of course, there will be many who dismiss the principled position taken by this article for a number of reasons: it might conflict with their previous choices, they may have a vested political or economic interest in promoting other types of software or simply because they have created a personal identity around a product or brand, something fairly common in our consumer societies. We should be both respectful but firm in our disagreement, because I believe in this case, we do hold the higher moral ground. Feel free to reuse, forward and share my comments if you find the arguments useful. Edited 2012-01-02 19:45 UTC |
 - Score: 20 |
| RE: What a great article to start the new year... |
| By OSNevvs on 2012-01-02 19:41:12 |
| The big problem is how to revert this downward trend...Many suggestions, none of them work and I can only see our fate going straight to the wall :( |
| - Score: 6 |
| RE[2]: What a great article to start the new year... |
| By fithisux on 2012-01-02 19:48:12 |
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> The big problem is how to revert this downward trend...Many suggestions, none of them work and I can only see our fate going straight to the wall :( Stallman's suggestions work, but humans are notorious for repeatedly making bad choices for bad reasons. Edited 2012-01-02 19:48 UTC |
| - Score: 10 |
| Where there is a will, there is a way |
| By porcel on 2012-01-02 19:53:42 |
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I have a very simple one. Get your hardware from local providers. I live in a small city and there are literally tens of stores willing to set you up with a laptop or pc with completely fully functional floss software. This is a simple choice to make and in doing so you support the local economy and send a crystal clear message to the pocketbook of proprietary software houses. Get your friends onboard if you need to. Doesn´t anyone remember good all Linux User Groups (LUGs)? Although I do prefer Linux´s license and funcationality, I am using Linux as an example, any free software OS is cool with me (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD) if it gets the job done for you. It´s never been easier to organize and find and support each other. Create small groups of free-software loving people in your street or neighborhood. It all adds up over time. How do you think free software got to where it is? (The companies, with the exception of a few visionaries, only came when they saw great potential, but we needed to get there in the first place). Of course, now many of them contribute if not out of the goodness of their heart, because the license makes them and the floss ecosystem and what it allows is too huge to ignore. Well, we should welcome those contributions too as eventually some will look for business models more atuned with the floss ethos. Want to go further? Imagine if a small portion of the people who comment on this site voted on and decided to support financially the development of an application each month? It need not be a huge amount ($5), but it would make a difference in the life of many free software developers. Edited 2012-01-02 19:58 UTC |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: Where there is a will, there is a way |
| By reez on 2012-01-02 20:11:51 |
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> I have a very simple one. Get your hardware from local providers. I live in a small city and there are literally tens of stores willing to set you up with a laptop or pc with completely fully functional floss software. The problem with hardware is that in most cases you need to reverse engineer, have closed source firmware, etc. |
| - Score: 4 |
| RE[2]: What a great article to start the new year... |
| By Fergy on 2012-01-02 20:30:53 |
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> Basically, he came up with his own version of freedom (aka 'The 4 Freedoms'), decided that was good enough for everybody, and then claims moral superiority over anyone who would dare to disagree. You have built a big straw-man(please tell me how the 4 freedoms are bad). Only Stallman thinks this way but his free software concept does not. A lot of software has to be proprietary because it couldn't be made otherwise. But it is really important that the building blocks of a computer are free software. I think that the government should demand only free software solutions for their needs. Edited 2012-01-02 20:32 UTC |
| - Score: 5 |
| Put your work where your mouth is. |
| By emilsedgh on 2012-01-02 21:13:54 |
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"This is why you should support Linux, even if you use Windows. This is why you should support Apache, even if you run IIS." If you want to truly support the Free Software Movement, the least you could do is actually using it. 'I support free software but iphone applications are more fun' or 'I like Linux but Windows works-for-me' means nothing. Im not saying we all should be as extreme as rms. Noone could be as extreme as him.We sometimes need to get some job done. But least we could do is giving up on some features of propertiary softwares. |
| - Score: 10 |
| RE: Where there is a will, there is a way |
| By ephracis on 2012-01-02 21:17:21 |
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> Want to go further? Imagine if a small portion of the people who comment on this site voted on and decided to support financially the development of an application each month? It need not be a huge amount ($5), but it would make a difference in the life of many free software developers. I would sign up to receive some of those donations. But honestly, donations are hard work. You really need to promote that donation button and try to push your users to give you those five dollars. You're lucky if a small fraction of a percent actually does donate. Then, me being very much against begging for money and using ads doesn't make it any easier. Too bad the costs doesn't care about your ethics. More people should donate to their favorite projects. Let that be your New Year's resolution: donate more money to your favorite free/open project (maybe Stoffi *caugh*). Maybe Flattr is the way to go? Making it really easy to donate money. Anyone have any experience with that? |
| - Score: 5 |
| RE: Put your work where your mouth is. |
| By Thom_Holwerda on 2012-01-02 21:20:02 |
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There are others way to support Free and open software, other than using it (which sometimes isn't an option). This "use it or sod off" attitude really isn't helping Free/open source software. What helps is educating people about the pros and cons, and then let them decide for themselves. Don't force them. Don't feel morally superior or insult them. It's not their fault they're using the software they like or are accustumed with, so don't act like it is. The best future is one where Free/open source software and proprietary software push each other to excel, for the benefit of all. We don't need an all-FOSS world; we simply need a world where FOSS is competitive and seen as a real competitor in as many fields as possible - forcing proprietary vendors to be on edge. |
| - Score: 10 |
| I'm sorry to say... |
| By thavith_osn on 2012-01-02 21:21:04 |
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...but supporting Android will not give you "freedom" from anything. Android connects to the... (wait for it)...internet... Android connects to the...(drum roll please)...phone networks... If you have Android, iOS etc. then you are connected and "could" be being tracked. Not only that, but Android comes with crapware from the carrier you bought it from. If anything, iOS could be considered safer (again, a big "could" here) :-) Having said that, none of them are safe, you'd be silly to think otherwise. But here's the thing. We can go around being "paranoid" and looking over our shoulders about all of this, or we can just live life. If the "authorities" in question are trying to take away our freedoms, then they will find a way. Sadly, there isn't a lot we can do. I have watched our freedoms being taken away for many years. 911 took away a few thousand peoples freedoms in a matter of hours. The governments (Australian included) have since used "the fight against terror" to take away millions of peoples freedoms (bit by bit) under the umbrella of keeping us safe. I love what Bob Dylan said in a song "...instead of learning to live, they are learning to die". That really summed it up for me. |
| - Score: 5 |
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