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+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<!-- Parent-Version: 1.77 -->
+<title>It's not the Gates, it's the bars
+- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
+<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/gates.translist" -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<h2> It's not the Gates, it's the bars</h2>
+
+<p>by <a href="http://www.stallman.org/"><strong>Richard
+Stallman</strong></a><br />
+Founder, Free Software Foundation
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p><em>(This article was <a
+href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7487060.stm">published by
+BBC News in 2008</a>.)</em></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+ <p>To pay so much attention to Bill Gates' retirement is
+ missing the point. What really matters is not Gates, nor
+ Microsoft, but the unethical system of restrictions that
+ Microsoft&mdash;like many other software companies&mdash;imposes on its
+ customers.</p>
+
+ <p>That statement may surprise you, since most people interested in
+ computers have strong feelings about Microsoft. Businessmen and their
+ tame politicians admire its success in building an empire over so many
+ computer users. Many outside the computer field credit Microsoft for
+ advances which it only took advantage of, such as making computers
+ cheap and fast, and convenient graphical user interfaces.</p>
+
+ <p>Gates' philanthropy for health care for poor countries has won
+ some people's good opinion. The LA Times reported that his
+ foundation spends five to 10% of its money annually and invests
+ the rest, sometimes in companies it suggests cause environmental
+ degradation and illness in the same poor countries.
+ (2010 update: The Gates Foundation is supporting a project with
+ agribusiness giant Cargill on a <a
+ href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/sep/29/gates-foundation-gm-monsanto">project
+ that could involve pushing genetically modified crops in Africa</a>.)</p>
+
+ <p>Many computerists specially hate Gates and Microsoft. They have
+ plenty of reasons. Microsoft persistently engages in anti-competitive
+ behaviour, and has been convicted three times. (Bush, who let
+ Microsoft off the hook for the second US conviction, was invited to
+ Microsoft headquarters to solicit funds for the 2000 election. In the
+ UK, Microsoft established a major office in Gordon Brown's
+ constituency. Both lawful, both potentially corrupting.)</p>
+
+ <p>Many users hate the &ldquo;Microsoft tax&rdquo;, the retail
+ contracts that make you pay for Windows on your computer even if you
+ won't use it. (In some countries you can get a refund, but the effort
+ required is daunting.) There's also the Digital Restrictions
+ Management: software features designed to &ldquo;stop&rdquo; you from
+ accessing your files freely. (Increased restriction of users seems to
+ be the main advance of Vista.)</p>
+
+ <p>Then there are the gratuitous incompatibilities and obstacles to
+ interoperation with other software. (This is why the EU required
+ Microsoft to publish interface specifications.) This year Microsoft
+ packed standards committees with its supporters to procure ISO
+ approval of its unwieldy, unimplementable and patented &ldquo;open
+ standard&rdquo; for documents. (The EU is now investigating this.)</p>
+
+ <p>These actions are intolerable, of course, but they are not
+ isolated events. They are systematic symptoms of a deeper wrong
+ which most people don't recognize: proprietary software.</p>
+
+ <p>Microsoft's software is distributed under licenses that keep
+ users divided and helpless. The users are divided because they
+ are forbidden to share copies with anyone else. The users are
+ helpless because they don't have the source code that programmers
+ can read and change.</p>
+
+ <p>If you're a programmer and you want to change the software, for
+ yourself or for someone else, you can't. If you're a business and you
+ want to pay a programmer to make the software suit your needs better,
+ you can't. If you copy it to share with your friend, which is simple
+ good-neighbourliness, they call you a &ldquo;pirate&rdquo;.
+ Microsoft would have us believe that helping your neighbour is the
+ moral equivalent of attacking a ship.</p>
+
+ <p>The most important thing that Microsoft has done is to promote this
+ unjust social system. Gates is personally identified with it, due to
+ his infamous open letter which rebuked microcomputer users for sharing
+ copies of his software. It said, in effect, &ldquo;If you don't let me
+ keep you divided and helpless, I won't write the software and you
+ won't have any. Surrender to me, or you're lost!&rdquo;</p>
+
+ <p>But Gates didn't invent proprietary software, and thousands of
+ other companies do the same thing. It's wrong&mdash;no matter who does
+ it. Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, and the rest, offer you software that
+ gives them power over you. A change in executives or companies is not
+ important. What we need to change is this system.</p>
+
+ <p>That's what the free software movement is all
+ about. &ldquo;Free&rdquo; refers to freedom: we write and publish
+ software that users are free to share and modify. We do this
+ systematically, for freedom's sake; some of us paid, many as
+ volunteers. We already have complete free operating systems, including
+ GNU/Linux. Our aim is to deliver a complete range of useful free
+ software, so that no computer user will be tempted to cede her freedom
+ to get software.</p>
+
+ <p>In 1984, when I started the free software movement, I was hardly
+ aware of Gates' letter. But I'd heard similar demands from others,
+ and I had a response: &ldquo;If your software would keep us divided
+ and helpless, please don't write it. We are better off without
+ it. We will find other ways to use our computers, and preserve our
+ freedom.&rdquo;</p>
+
+ <p>In 1992, when the GNU operating system was completed by the
+ kernel, Linux, you had to be a wizard to run it. Today GNU/Linux
+ is user-friendly: in parts of Spain and India, it's standard in
+ schools. Tens of millions use it, around the world. You can use
+ it too.</p>
+
+ <p>Gates may be gone, but the walls and bars of proprietary software
+ he helped create remain&mdash;for now. Dismantling them is up to
+ us.</p>
+
+</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
+<div id="footer">
+<div class="unprintable">
+
+<p>Please send general FSF &amp; GNU inquiries to
+<a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org">&lt;gnu@gnu.org&gt;</a>.
+There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
+the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent
+to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org">&lt;webmasters@gnu.org&gt;</a>.</p>
+
+<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph,
+ replace it with the translation of these two:
+
+ We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality
+ translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection.
+ Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard
+ to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org">
+ &lt;web-translators@gnu.org&gt;</a>.</p>
+
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+ href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
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+Please see the <a
+href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting translations
+of this article.</p>
+</div>
+
+<!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to
+ files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should
+ be under CC BY-ND 3.0 US. Please do NOT change or remove this
+ without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first.
+ Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the
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+
+ If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too.
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+
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+
+
+<p>Copyright &copy; 2008 Richard Stallman</p>
+
+<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
+href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/">Creative
+Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License</a>.</p>
+
+<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" -->
+
+<p class="unprintable">Updated:
+<!-- timestamp start -->
+$Date: 2014/04/12 12:40:08 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</body>
+</html>