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+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<!-- Parent-Version: 1.86 -->
+<title>The Free Software Community After 20 Years
+- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
+<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/use-free-software.translist" -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<h2>The Free Software Community After 20 Years: <br />
+With great but incomplete success, what now?</h2>
+
+<p>by <a href="http://www.stallman.org/"><strong>Richard
+Stallman</strong></a></p>
+
+<p>
+It was 5 Jan 1984, twenty years ago today, that I quit my job at MIT
+to begin developing a free software operating system,
+<a href="/gnu/the-gnu-project.html">GNU</a>. While we have never
+released a complete GNU system suitable for production use, a variant
+of the GNU system is now used by tens of millions of people who mostly
+are not aware it is such. Free software does not mean
+&ldquo;gratis&rdquo;; it means that users are free to run the program,
+study the source code, change it, and redistribute it either with or
+without changes, either gratis or for a fee.</p>
+
+<p>
+My hope was that a free operating system would open a path to escape
+forever from the system of subjugation which is proprietary software.
+I had experienced the ugliness of the way of life that nonfree
+software imposes on its users, and I was determined to escape and give
+others a way to escape.</p>
+
+<p>
+Non-free software carries with it an antisocial system that prohibits
+cooperation and community. You are typically unable to see the source
+code; you cannot tell what nasty tricks, or what foolish bugs, it
+might contain. If you don't like it, you are helpless to change it.
+Worst of all, you are forbidden to share it with anyone else. To
+prohibit sharing software is to cut the bonds of society.</p>
+
+<p>
+Today we have a large community of users who run GNU, Linux and other
+free software. Thousands of people would like to extend this, and
+have adopted the goal of convincing more computer users to &ldquo;use
+free software&rdquo;. But what does it mean to &ldquo;use free
+software&rdquo;? Does that mean escaping from proprietary software,
+or merely installing free programs alongside it? Are we aiming to
+lead people to freedom, or just introduce them to our code? In other
+words, are we working for freedom, or have we replaced that goal with
+the shallow goal of popularity?</p>
+
+<p>
+It's easy to get in the habit of overlooking this distinction, because
+in many common situations it makes no difference. When you're trying
+to convince a person to try a free program, or to install the
+<a href="/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html">GNU/Linux</a> operating system,
+either goal would lead to the same practical conduct. However, in
+other situations the two goals inspire very different actions.</p>
+
+<p>
+For instance, what should we say when the nonfree Invidious video
+driver, the nonfree Prophecy database, or the nonfree Indonesia
+language interpreter and libraries, is released in a version that runs
+on GNU/Linux? Should we thank the developers for this
+&ldquo;support&rdquo; for our system, or should we regard this
+nonfree program like any other&mdash;as an attractive nuisance, a
+temptation to accept bondage, a problem to be solved?</p>
+
+<p>
+If you take as your goal the increased popularity of certain free
+software, if you seek to convince more people to use some free
+programs some of the time, you might think those nonfree programs are
+helpful contributions to that goal. It is hard to dispute the claim
+that their availability helps make GNU/Linux more popular. If the
+widespread use of GNU or Linux is the ultimate goal of our community,
+we should logically applaud all applications that run on it, whether
+free or not.</p>
+
+<p>
+But if our goal is freedom, that changes everything. Users cannot be
+free while using a nonfree program. To free the citizens of
+cyberspace, we have to replace those nonfree programs, not accept
+them. They are not contributions to our community, they are
+temptations to settle for continuing non-freedom.</p>
+
+<p>
+There are two common motivations to develop a free program. One is
+that there is no program to do the job. Unfortunately, accepting the
+use of a nonfree program eliminates that motivation. The other is
+the will to be free, which motivates people to write free replacements
+for nonfree programs. In cases like these, that motive is the only
+one that can do the job. Simply by using a new and unfinished free
+replacement, before it technically compares with the nonfree model,
+you can help encourage the free developers to persevere until it
+becomes superior.</p>
+
+<p>
+Those nonfree programs are not trivial. Developing free replacements
+for them will be a big job; it may take years. The work may need the
+help of future hackers, young people today, people yet to be inspired
+to join the work on free software. What can we do today to help
+convince other people, in the future, to maintain the necessary
+determination and persistence to finish this work?</p>
+
+<p>
+The most effective way to strengthen our community for the future is
+to spread understanding of the value of freedom&mdash;to teach more
+people to recognize the moral unacceptability of nonfree software.
+People who value freedom are, in the long term, its best and essential
+defense.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><strong>Originally published on Newsforge.</strong></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 4.0. 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; 2004, 2017, 2018 Richard Stallman</p>
+
+<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
+href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative
+Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p>
+
+<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" -->
+
+<p class="unprintable">Updated:
+<!-- timestamp start -->
+$Date: 2018/12/15 14:02:39 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
+</div>
+</div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include -->
+</body>
+</html>