[Fsf-india] Emotion, ethics, and free software

[Richard Stallman]

    There is no denying that the ethics of free software are the most
    important reason to encourage its adoption as widely as possible. On
    the other hand, the average user isn't concerned about the philosophy
    of free software and has to be approached bearing his/her requirements
    in mind, by giving him/her a practical reason to adopt it.

This "pragmatic" approach conceals a pitfall that we have to carefully
avoid.  If we approach the general public mainly with practical
arguments, that will effectively silence us in public on ethical
issues.  We will become, for practical purposes, supporters of the
Open Source Movement.  Then, when our words meet people who might care
about the ethical issues, we will fail to teach them about those
issues.  We must not let this happen.

To avoid this pitfall, we must always state ethical arguments as well
as practical arguments.  We must not let the people who don't care
about ethics pull us down to their level--instead, we should make the
attempt to pull them up to our level (even though we know this will
only succeed a fraction of the time).  Even if they don't care
about ethics, we do, and making that clear is part of our mission.

This is the primary mission of the FSF.  We must never depart from it.

      I was one of the first Linux users in India, in 1992, when
    the term GNU/Linux hadn't even originated to the best of my knowledge.
    I called it Linux then, and I call it Linux today.

The system was basically GNU then, and it is basically GNU today.  You
know this now, but most of the system's users don't--because they hear
others call it "Linux".  When you call the system "Linux", you're spreading
the mistaken picture of the system's origin and nature, not correcting it.

So would you please call the system "GNU/Linux"?  Changing a habit
takes work, but not THAT much work.  Won't you do a small amount of
work to give the GNU Project its proper share of the credit?  That is
the help we need.

    I've noticed a movement on
    the list to jump down the throat of anyone who appears to disagree
    with the purist point of view or purist terminology.

We should not "jump down their throats", but rather raise the issue as
I have done it here.  We should persistently ask people to treat us
right.  In most cases, the reason they don't do it is because they
were taught wrong.  That is why it is so important what you teach new
users.

In forums that operate under FSF auspices, we should make sure that
calling the system "Linux" does not ever become seen as legitimate,
acceptable conduct.  We should hardly lend others a platform to do
wrong to us.  But we can do this better if we don't do it by "jumping
down their throats".