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 --- .../blog/articles/en/social-inertia.html | 129 +++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 129 insertions(+) create mode 100644 talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/social-inertia.html (limited to 'talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/social-inertia.html') diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/social-inertia.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/social-inertia.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef004e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/social-inertia.html @@ -0,0 +1,129 @@ + + +Overcoming Social Inertia +- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation + + +

Overcoming Social Inertia

+ +

by Richard +Stallman

+ +

+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?

+ +

+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, commercial +web sites accessible only with Windows, and the BBC's iPlayer +handcuffware, which runs only on 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.

+ +

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.

+ +

+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.

+ +

+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.

+ +

+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.

+ +

+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.

+ + + + + + + -- cgit v1.2.3