microsoft-old.html (6010B)
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>Is Microsoft the Great Satan? (Old Version) 7 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> 8 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/microsoft-old.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!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--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>Is Microsoft the Great Satan? (Old Version)</h2> 15 16 <div class="announcement"> 17 <p>There is an <a href="/philosophy/microsoft.html"> 18 updated version</a> of this article.</p> 19 </div> 20 <hr class="thin" /> 21 22 <p>Many people think of Microsoft as the monster menace of the software 23 industry. There is even a campaign to boycott Microsoft. This feeling 24 has intensified since Microsoft expressed active hostility towards 25 free software.</p> 26 27 <p>In the free software movement, our perspective is different. We see 28 that Microsoft is doing something that is bad for software users: 29 making software <a href="/philosophy/categories.html#ProprietarySoftware"> 30 proprietary</a> and thus denying users their rightful freedom.</p> 31 32 <p>But Microsoft is not alone in this; almost all software companies 33 do the same thing to the users. If other companies manage to dominate 34 fewer users than Microsoft, that is not for lack of trying.</p> 35 36 <p>This is not meant to excuse Microsoft. Rather, it is meant as a 37 reminder that Microsoft is the natural development of a software 38 industry based on <a href="/philosophy/shouldbefree.html">dividing 39 users and taking away their freedom</a>. When criticizing Microsoft, 40 we must not exonerate the other companies that also make proprietary 41 software. At the FSF, we don't run any proprietary software—not 42 from Microsoft or anyone else.</p> 43 44 <p>In the “Halloween documents,” released at the end of 45 October 1998, Microsoft executives stated an intention to use various 46 methods to obstruct the development of free software: specifically, 47 designing secret protocols and file formats, and patenting algorithms 48 and software features.</p> 49 50 <p>These obstructionist policies are nothing new: Microsoft, and many 51 other software companies, have been doing them for years now. In the 52 past, probably, their motivation was to attack each other; now, it 53 seems, we are among the intended targets. But that change in 54 motivation has no practical consequence, because secret conventions 55 and software patents obstruct everyone, regardless of the 56 “intended target.”</p> 57 58 <p>Secrecy and patents do threaten free software. They have obstructed 59 us greatly in the past, and we must expect they will do so even more 60 in the future. But this is no different from what was going to happen 61 even if Microsoft had never noticed us. The only real significance of 62 the “Halloween documents” is that Microsoft seems to think 63 that the <a href="/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html">GNU/Linux system</a> has 64 the potential for great success.</p> 65 66 <p>Thank you, Microsoft, and please get out of the way.</p> 67 </div> 68 69 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> 70 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> 71 <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> 72 <div class="unprintable"> 73 74 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <a 75 href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. There are also <a 76 href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken links and other 77 corrections or suggestions can be sent to <a 78 href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> 79 80 <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, 81 replace it with the translation of these two: 82 83 We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality 84 translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. 85 Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard 86 to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> 87 <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> 88 89 <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of 90 our web pages, see <a 91 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 92 README</a>. --> 93 Please see the <a 94 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a> for 95 information on coordinating and contributing translations of this article.</p> 96 </div> 97 98 <!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to 99 files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should 100 be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this 101 without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. 102 Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the 103 document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the 104 document was modified, or published. 105 106 If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. 107 Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying 108 years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable 109 year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including 110 being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). 111 112 There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers 113 Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> 114 115 <p>Copyright © 1997-2000, 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p> 116 117 <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" 118 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative 119 Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> 120 121 <!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> 122 123 <p class="unprintable">Updated: 124 <!-- timestamp start --> 125 $Date: 2021/09/12 08:14:19 $ 126 <!-- timestamp end --> 127 </p> 128 </div> 129 </div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include --> 130 </body> 131 </html>