I successfully installed Ubuntu dual boot with Win XP on my brand new Asus netbook! ^_^
Am I l33t now?
Name:
RMS Matthew Stallman2009-07-01 20:32
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/ In the Free Software Movement, we stand for freedom for the users of \
| software. We formulated our views by looking at what freedoms are necessary |
| for a good way of life, and permit useful programs to foster a community of |
| goodwill, cooperation, and collaboration. Our criteria for Free Software |
| specify the freedoms that a program's users need so that they can cooperate |
| in a community. |
| |
| We stand for freedom for programmers as well as for other users. Most of us |
| are programmers, and we want freedom for ourselves as well as for you. But |
| each of us uses software written by others, and we want freedom when using |
| that software, not just when using our own code. We stand for freedom for |
| all users, whether they program often, occasionally, or not at all. |
| |
| However, one so-called freedom that we do not advocate is the ?freedom to |
| choose any license you want for software you write?. We reject this because |
| it is really a form of power, not a freedom. |
| |
| This oft-overlooked distinction is crucial. Freedom is being able to make |
| decisions that affect mainly you. Power is being able to make decisions |
| that affect others more than you. If we confuse power with freedom, we will |
| fail to uphold real freedom. |
| |
| Proprietary software is an exercise of power. Copyright law today grants |
| software developers that power, so they and only they choose the rules to |
| impose on everyone else?a relatively few people make the basic software |
| decisions for everyone, typically by denying their freedom. When users lack |
| the freedoms that define Free Software, they can't tell what the software |
| is doing, can't check for back doors, can't monitor possible viruses and |
| worms, can't find out what personal information is being reported (or stop |
| the reports, even if they do find out). If it breaks, they can't fix it; |
| they have to wait for the developer to exercise its power to do so. If it |
| simply isn't quite what they need, they are stuck with it. They can't help |
| each other improve it. |
| |
| Proprietary software developers are often businesses. We in the Free |
| Software Movement are not opposed to business, but we have seen what |
| happens when a software business has the ?freedom? to impose arbitrary |
| rules on the users of software. Microsoft is an egregious example of how |
| denying users' freedoms can lead to direct harm, but it is not the only |
| example. Even when there is no monopoly, proprietary software harms |
| society. A choice of masters is not freedom. |
| |
| Discussions of rights and rules for software have often concentrated on the |
| interests of programmers alone. Few people in the world program regularly, |
| and fewer still are owners of proprietary software businesses. But the |
| entire developed world now needs and uses software, so software developers |
| now control the way the world lives, does business, communicates and is |
| entertained. The ethical and political issues are not addressed by the |
| slogan of ?freedom of choice (for developers only)?. |
| |
| If code is law, as Professor Lawrence Lessig (of Stanford Law School) has |
| stated, then the real question we face is: who should control the code you |
| use?you, or an elite few? We believe you are entitled to control the |
| software you use, and giving you that control is the goal of Free Software. |
| |
| We believe you should decide what to do with the software you use; however, |
| that is not what today's law says. Current copyright law places us in the |
| position of power over users of our code, whether we like it or not. The |
| ethical response to this situation is to proclaim freedom for each user, |
| just as the Bill of Rights was supposed to exercise government power by |
| guaranteeing each citizen's freedoms. That is what the GNU GPL is for: it |
| puts you in control of your usage of the software, while protecting you |
| from others who would like to take control of your decisions. |
| |
| As more and more users realize that code is law, and come to feel that they |
| too deserve freedom, they will see the importance of the freedoms we stand |
| for, just as more and more users have come to appreciate the practical |
\ value of the Free Software we have developed. /
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