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diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/scrap1_42.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/scrap1_42.html deleted file mode 100644 index 8263f0b..0000000 --- a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/scrap1_42.html +++ /dev/null @@ -1,94 +0,0 @@ -<!-- 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"/> - |