From 1ae0306a3cf2ea27f60b2d205789994d260c2cce Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christian Grothoff Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2020 13:29:45 +0200 Subject: add i18n FSFS --- talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/gates.html | 187 +++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 187 insertions(+) create mode 100644 talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/gates.html (limited to 'talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/gates.html') diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/gates.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/gates.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0669a71 --- /dev/null +++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/gates.html @@ -0,0 +1,187 @@ + + +It's not the Gates, it's the bars +- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation + + +

It's not the Gates, it's the bars

+ +

by Richard +Stallman
+Founder, Free Software Foundation +

+ +
+

(This article was published by +BBC News in 2008.)

+
+ +

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—like many other software companies—imposes on its + customers.

+ +

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.

+ +

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 project + that could involve pushing genetically modified crops in Africa.)

+ +

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.)

+ +

Many users hate the “Microsoft tax”, 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 “stop” you from + accessing your files freely. (Increased restriction of users seems to + be the main advance of Vista.)

+ +

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 “open + standard” for documents. (The EU is now investigating this.)

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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 “pirate”. + Microsoft would have us believe that helping your neighbour is the + moral equivalent of attacking a ship.

+ +

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, “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!”

+ +

But Gates didn't invent proprietary software, and thousands of + other companies do the same thing. It's wrong—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.

+ +

That's what the free software movement is all + about. “Free” 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.

+ +

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: “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.”

+ +

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.

+ +

Gates may be gone, but the walls and bars of proprietary software + he helped create remain—for now. Dismantling them is up to + us.

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