[Fsf-friends] linux and open source

[Krishna Pagadala]

This list being the Free Software Foundation's list. And the motivation of the list being "teaching people to value freedom, which is the most important thing we have to do"

 I request that everybody to use GNU/Linux to refer to the whole OS. And Free Software or Freedom Software or Swatantra software rather than OSS.

>From the recent GPLv3 conference RMS had this to say about Linux and Open Source.
 http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/bangalore-rms-transcript.en.html

 Richard Stallman: Oh you mean GNU+Linux. 
   Q7b: Linux, Linux operating... 
   Richard Stallman: It's GNU+Linux, please give us credit for our work.  I'm happy to hear that your laptop came with our system on it, with GNU, and with Linux the kernel.  Please do not call the whole thing "Linux".  You're being unfair to us every time you say that. 
   Q7c: I came very late because of [...].  Anyway, having seen that they sell Linux... 
   Richard Stallman: They sell GNU and Linux. 
   [laughter] 
   Q7d
 Richard Stallman: Well, I'm rather sad about that because I don't agree with the open source movement.  I've never supported open source and I never will.  Open source is the way that people co-opt our work and bury our ideals. 
   Linus Torvalds is an open source supporter.  If you look at the things he says, you'll get an idea of the ideas of open source, which are quite different from what I've said today.  I'm talking about the free software movement which I founded twenty-three years ago so that we could use computers and live in freedom.  It's all about freedom. This is exactly what the open source rhetoric tries to bury. 
   They never talk about freedom as their goal.  They don't say: "you are entitled to the freedom to change and control the software you use, and the freedom to share it so that you can cooperate with others".  They never say you're entitled to anything.  The very idea of raising this as a moral issue, they reject.  That's why they focus on talking about a development methodology, and they recommend the development methodology because they say it tends to result in practical advantages. 
   Well, I'm glad to the extent that's try.  If respecting people's fundamental freedoms as software users also results in powerful reliable software as a by-product.  Great, that's a nice bonus.  But I would insist on freedom even if it meant less reliable, less powerful software because I want to live in freedom, and I want to work for you to have freedom too. 
   [1:12:37] 
   This is what the open source people won't say.  The whole point of open source is to avoid ever mentioning this.  So, I'm not necessarily happy that the open source movement, to the extent it is a movement, has success. 
   I say "to the extent it is a movement" because the free software movement is a social movement.  It's a social movement in every sense.  Open source is not.  It's a kind of campaign, but I'm not sure it's a movement. 
   In any case, to the extent that their success is also our success, I'm glad.  But at the practical level, it often is.  Most open source licences are also Free Software licences.  Nearly all the time, when somebody is convinced by the open source movement and develops an open source program, it is Free Software.  So it's a good thing. Practically speaking, that work is a contribution to our community. I'm not going to criticise it just because of what motivations it had.  But, at the deeper level of teaching people to value freedom, which is the most important thing we have to do, the talk about open source does not help us.  And you can the difference between these philosophies showing up in the disagreement between Torvalds and us. 




Kush <be_a_sport at rogers.com> wrote: Many open source programs like openoffice/jashaka etc now only come with versions that can work with windows XP etc instead of also working with earlier windows versions. This necessitates buying or using pirated versions of windows and also upgrading the hardware sometimes. What can be done to continue making softwares for all versions of windows instead 
of the latest versions? Can some of us write to the developers of various such softwares and to the linux media channels of this anomaly?


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Misinterpreting Copyright by Richard Stallman
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