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+<!-- This is the second edition of Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman.
+
+Free Software Foundation
+
+51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor
+
+Boston, MA 02110-1335
+Copyright C 2002, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire book are permitted
+worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice is
+preserved. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations
+of this book from the original English into another language provided
+the translation has been approved by the Free Software Foundation and
+the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all
+copies.
+
+ISBN 978-0-9831592-0-9
+Cover design by Rob Myers.
+
+Cover photograph by Peter Hinely.
+ -->
+
+
+ <a name="Overcoming-Social-Inertia">
+ </a>
+ <h1 class="chapter">
+ 42. Overcoming Social Inertia
+ </h1>
+ <a name="index-citizen-values_002c-convenience-v_002e-7">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-citizen-values_002c-social-inertia-v_002e">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-Windows_002c-social-inertia_002c-short_002dterm-convenience_002c-and-_0028see-also-citizen-values_0029">
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ Almost two decades have passed since the combination of GNU and Linux
+first made it possible to use a PC in freedom. We have come a long way
+since then. Now you can even buy a laptop with GNU/Linux preinstalled
+from more than one hardware vendor—although the systems they ship
+are not entirely free software. So what holds us back from total
+success?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The main obstacle to the triumph of software freedom is social
+inertia. It exists in many forms, and you have surely seen some of
+them. Examples include devices that only work on Windows and
+commercial web sites accessible only with Windows. If you value
+short-term convenience instead of freedom, you might consider these
+reason enough to use Windows. Most companies currently run Windows, so
+students who think short-term want to learn how to use it and ask
+their schools to teach it. Schools teach Windows, produce graduates
+that are used to using Windows, and this encourages businesses to use
+Windows.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Microsoft actively nurtures this inertia: it encourages schools to
+inculcate dependency on Windows, and contracts to set up web sites
+that then turn out to work only with Internet Explorer.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A few years ago, Microsoft ads argued that Windows was cheaper to run
+than GNU/Linux. Their comparisons were debunked, but it is worth
+noting the deeper flaw in their argument, the implicit premise which
+cites a form of social inertia: “Currently, more technical people
+know Windows than GNU/Linux.” People who value their freedom would
+not give it up to save money, but many business executives believe
+ideologically that everything they possess, even their freedom, should
+be for sale.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Social inertia consists of people who have given in to social inertia.
+When you surrender to social inertia, you become part of the pressure
+it exerts on others; when you resist it, you reduce it. We conquer
+social inertia by identifying it, and resolving not to be part of
+it.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Here a weakness holds our community back: most GNU/Linux users have
+never even heard the ideas of freedom that motivated the development
+of GNU, so they still judge matters based on short-term convenience
+rather than on their freedom. This makes them vulnerable to being led
+by the nose by social inertia, so that they become part of the
+inertia.
+ </p>
+ <a name="index-call-to-action_002c-talk-about-freedom-1">
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ To build our community’s strength to resist, we need to talk about
+free software and freedom—not merely about the practical benefits
+that open source supporters cite. As more people recognize what they
+need to do to overcome the inertia, we will make more progress.
+ </p>
+ <hr size="2"/>
+