gates.html (9337B)
1 <!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> 2 <!-- Parent-Version: 1.96 --> 3 <!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html --> 4 <!--#set var="TAGS" value="essays cultural evils" --> 5 <!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" --> 6 <title>It's not the Gates, it's the bars 7 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> 8 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/gates.translist" --> 9 <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> 10 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/ph-breadcrumb.html" --> 11 <!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--> 12 <!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" --> 13 <div class="article reduced-width"> 14 <h2> It's not the Gates, it's the bars</h2> 15 16 <address class="byline">by <a href="https://www.stallman.org/">Richard 17 Stallman</a></address> 18 19 <p>To pay so much attention to Bill Gates' retirement is 20 missing the point. What really matters is not Gates, nor 21 Microsoft, but the unethical system of restrictions that 22 Microsoft—like many other software companies—imposes on its 23 customers.</p> 24 25 <p>That statement may surprise you, since most people interested in 26 computers have strong feelings about Microsoft. Businessmen and their 27 tame politicians admire its success in building an empire over so many 28 computer users. Many outside the computer field credit Microsoft for 29 advances which it only took advantage of, such as making computers 30 cheap and fast, and convenient graphical user interfaces.</p> 31 32 <p>Gates' philanthropy for health care for poor countries has won 33 some people's good opinion. The LA Times reported that his 34 foundation spends five to 10% of its money annually and invests 35 the rest, sometimes in companies it suggests cause environmental 36 degradation and illness in the same poor countries. 37 (2010 update: The Gates Foundation is supporting a project with 38 agribusiness giant Cargill on a <a 39 href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/sep/29/gates-foundation-gm-monsanto">project 40 that could involve pushing genetically modified crops in Africa</a>.)</p> 41 42 <p>Many computerists specially hate Gates and Microsoft. They have 43 plenty of reasons. Microsoft persistently engages in anti-competitive 44 behaviour, and has been convicted three times. (Bush, who let 45 Microsoft off the hook for the second US conviction, was invited to 46 Microsoft headquarters to solicit funds for the 2000 election. In the 47 UK, Microsoft established a major office in Gordon Brown's 48 constituency. Both lawful, both potentially corrupting.)</p> 49 50 <p>Many users hate the “Microsoft tax,” the retail 51 contracts that make you pay for Windows on your computer even if you 52 won't use it. (In some countries you can get a refund, but the effort 53 required is daunting.) There's also the Digital Restrictions 54 Management: software features designed to “stop” you from 55 accessing your files freely. (Increased restriction of users seems to 56 be the main advance of Vista.)</p> 57 58 <p>Then there are the gratuitous incompatibilities and obstacles to 59 interoperation with other software. (This is why the EU required 60 Microsoft to publish interface specifications.) This year Microsoft 61 packed standards committees with its supporters to procure ISO 62 approval of its unwieldy, unimplementable and patented “open 63 standard” for documents. (The EU is now investigating this.)</p> 64 65 <p>These actions are intolerable, of course, but they are not 66 isolated events. They are systematic symptoms of a deeper wrong 67 which most people don't recognize: proprietary software.</p> 68 69 <p>Microsoft's software is distributed under licenses that keep 70 users divided and helpless. The users are divided because they 71 are forbidden to share copies with anyone else. The users are 72 helpless because they don't have the source code that programmers 73 can read and change.</p> 74 75 <p>If you're a programmer and you want to change the software, for 76 yourself or for someone else, you can't. If you're a business and you 77 want to pay a programmer to make the software suit your needs better, 78 you can't. If you copy it to share with your friend, which is simple 79 good-neighbourliness, they call you a “pirate.” 80 Microsoft would have us believe that helping your neighbour is the 81 moral equivalent of attacking a ship.</p> 82 83 <p>The most important thing that Microsoft has done is to promote this 84 unjust social system. Gates is personally identified with it, due to 85 his infamous open letter which rebuked microcomputer users for sharing 86 copies of his software. It said, in effect, “If you don't let me 87 keep you divided and helpless, I won't write the software and you 88 won't have any. Surrender to me, or you're lost!”</p> 89 90 <p>But Gates didn't invent proprietary software, and thousands of 91 other companies do the same thing. It's wrong—no matter who does 92 it. Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, and the rest, offer you software that 93 gives them power over you. A change in executives or companies is not 94 important. What we need to change is this system.</p> 95 96 <p>That's what the free software movement is all 97 about. “Free” refers to freedom: we write and publish 98 software that users are free to share and modify. We do this 99 systematically, for freedom's sake; some of us paid, many as 100 volunteers. We already have complete free operating systems, including 101 GNU/Linux. Our aim is to deliver a complete range of useful free 102 software, so that no computer user will be tempted to cede her freedom 103 to get software.</p> 104 105 <p>In 1984, when I started the free software movement, I was hardly 106 aware of Gates' letter. But I'd heard similar demands from others, 107 and I had a response: “If your software would keep us divided 108 and helpless, please don't write it. We are better off without 109 it. We will find other ways to use our computers, and preserve our 110 freedom.”</p> 111 112 <p>In 1992, when the GNU operating system was completed by the 113 kernel, Linux, you had to be a wizard to run it. Today GNU/Linux 114 is user-friendly: in parts of Spain and India, it's standard in 115 schools. Tens of millions use it, around the world. You can use 116 it too.</p> 117 118 <p>Gates may be gone, but the walls and bars of proprietary software 119 he helped create remain—for now. Dismantling them is up to 120 us.</p> 121 122 <div class="infobox extra" role="complementary"> 123 <hr /> 124 <p>This article was <a 125 href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7487060.stm">published by 126 <cite>BBC News</cite> in 2008</a>.</p> 127 </div> 128 </div> 129 130 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> 131 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> 132 <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> 133 <div class="unprintable"> 134 135 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to 136 <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. 137 There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> 138 the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent 139 to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> 140 141 <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, 142 replace it with the translation of these two: 143 144 We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality 145 translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. 146 Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard 147 to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> 148 <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> 149 150 <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of 151 our web pages, see <a 152 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 153 README</a>. --> 154 Please see the <a 155 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 156 README</a> for information on coordinating and contributing translations 157 of this article.</p> 158 </div> 159 160 <!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to 161 files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should 162 be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this 163 without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. 164 Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the 165 document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the 166 document was modified, or published. 167 168 If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. 169 Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying 170 years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable 171 year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including 172 being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). 173 174 There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers 175 Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> 176 177 <p>Copyright © 2008, 2021 Richard Stallman</p> 178 179 <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" 180 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative 181 Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> 182 183 <!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> 184 185 <p class="unprintable">Updated: 186 <!-- timestamp start --> 187 $Date: 2021/09/10 10:58:36 $ 188 <!-- timestamp end --> 189 </p> 190 </div> 191 </div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include --> 192 </body> 193 </html>