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+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<!-- Parent-Version: 1.77 -->
+<title>Is Microsoft the Great Satan? (Old Version)
+- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
+<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/microsoft-old.translist" -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<h2>Is Microsoft the Great Satan? (Old Version)</h2>
+
+<div class="announcement">
+<blockquote><p>There is an <a href="/philosophy/microsoft.html">
+updated version</a> of this article.</p></blockquote>
+</div>
+
+<p>Many people think of Microsoft as the monster menace of the software
+industry. There is even a campaign to boycott Microsoft. This feeling
+has intensified since Microsoft expressed active hostility towards
+free software.</p>
+
+<p>In the free software movement, our perspective is different. We see
+that Microsoft is doing something that is bad for software users:
+making software <a href="/philosophy/categories.html#ProprietarySoftware">
+proprietary</a> and thus denying users their rightful freedom.</p>
+
+<p>But Microsoft is not alone in this; almost all software companies
+do the same thing to the users. If other companies manage to dominate
+fewer users than Microsoft, that is not for lack of trying.</p>
+
+<p>This is not meant to excuse Microsoft. Rather, it is meant as a
+reminder that Microsoft is the natural development of a software
+industry based on <a href="/philosophy/shouldbefree.html">dividing
+users and taking away their freedom</a>. When criticizing Microsoft,
+we must not exonerate the other companies that also make proprietary
+software. At the FSF, we don't run any proprietary software&mdash;not
+from Microsoft or anyone else.</p>
+
+<p>In the &ldquo;Halloween documents&rdquo;, released at the end of
+October 1998, Microsoft executives stated an intention to use various
+methods to obstruct the development of free software: specifically,
+designing secret protocols and file formats, and patenting algorithms
+and software features.</p>
+
+<p>These obstructionist policies are nothing new: Microsoft, and many
+other software companies, have been doing them for years now. In the
+past, probably, their motivation was to attack each other; now, it
+seems, we are among the intended targets. But that change in
+motivation has no practical consequence, because secret conventions
+and software patents obstruct everyone, regardless of the
+&ldquo;intended target&rdquo;.</p>
+
+<p>Secrecy and patents do threaten free software. They have obstructed
+us greatly in the past, and we must expect they will do so even more
+in the future. But this is no different from what was going to happen
+even if Microsoft had never noticed us. The only real significance of
+the &ldquo;Halloween documents&rdquo; is that Microsoft seems to think
+that the <a href="/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html">GNU/Linux system</a> has
+the potential for great success.</p>
+
+<p>Thank you, Microsoft, and please get out of the way.</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>
+
+ <p>For information on coordinating and submitting translations of
+ our web pages, see <a
+ href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+ README</a>. -->
+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
+ document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the
+ document was modified, or published.
+
+ If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too.
+ Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying
+ years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable
+ year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including
+ being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system).
+
+ There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers
+ Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. -->
+
+<p>Copyright &copy; 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free
+Software Foundation, Inc.</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 12:40:16 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</body>
+</html>