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use-free-software.html (8579B)

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 <title>The Free Software Community After 20 Years
 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
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 The Free Software Community After 20 Years: </h2>
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 With great but incomplete success, what now?</h3>
 
 <address class="byline">by <a href="https://www.stallman.org/">Richard
 Stallman</a></address>
 
 <p>
 It was 5 Jan 1984, twenty years ago today, that I quit my job at MIT
 to begin developing a free software operating system,
 <a href="/gnu/thegnuproject.html">GNU</a>.  While we have never
 released a complete GNU system suitable for production use, a variant
 of the GNU system is now used by tens of millions of people who mostly
 are not aware it is such.  Free software does not mean
 &ldquo;gratis&rdquo;; it means that users are free to run the program,
 study the source code, change it, and redistribute it either with or
 without changes, either gratis or for a fee.</p>
 
 <p>
 My hope was that a free operating system would open a path to escape
 forever from the system of subjugation which is proprietary software.
 I had experienced the ugliness of the way of life that nonfree
 software imposes on its users, and I was determined to escape and give
 others a way to escape.</p>
 
 <p>
 Nonfree software carries with it an antisocial system that prohibits
 cooperation and community.  You are typically unable to see the source
 code; you cannot tell what nasty tricks, or what foolish bugs, it
 might contain.  If you don't like it, you are helpless to change it.
 Worst of all, you are forbidden to share it with anyone else.  To
 prohibit sharing software is to cut the bonds of society.</p>
 
 <p>
 Today we have a large community of users who run GNU, Linux and other
 free software.  Thousands of people would like to extend this, and
 have adopted the goal of convincing more computer users to &ldquo;use
 free software.&rdquo;  But what does it mean to &ldquo;use free
 software&rdquo;?  Does that mean escaping from proprietary software,
 or merely installing free programs alongside it?  Are we aiming to
 lead people to freedom, or just introduce them to our code?  In other
 words, are we working for freedom, or have we replaced that goal with
 the shallow goal of popularity?</p>
 
 <p>
 It's easy to get in the habit of overlooking this distinction, because
 in many common situations it makes no difference.  When you're trying
 to convince a person to try a free program, or to install the
 <a href="/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html">GNU/Linux</a> operating system,
 either goal would lead to the same practical conduct.  However, in
 other situations the two goals inspire very different actions.</p>
 
 <p>
 For instance, what should we say when the nonfree Invidious video
 driver, the nonfree Prophecy database, or the nonfree Indonesia
 language interpreter and libraries, is released in a version that runs
 on GNU/Linux?  Should we thank the developers for this
 &ldquo;support&rdquo; for our system, or should we regard this
 nonfree program like any other&mdash;as an attractive nuisance, a
 temptation to accept bondage, a problem to be solved?</p>
 
 <p>
 If you take as your goal the increased popularity of certain free
 software, if you seek to convince more people to use some free
 programs some of the time, you might think those nonfree programs are
 helpful contributions to that goal.  It is hard to dispute the claim
 that their availability helps make GNU/Linux more popular.  If the
 widespread use of GNU or Linux is the ultimate goal of our community,
 we should logically applaud all applications that run on it, whether
 free or not.</p>
 
 <p>
 But if our goal is freedom, that changes everything.  Users cannot be
 free while using a nonfree program.  To free the citizens of
 cyberspace, we have to replace those nonfree programs, not accept
 them.  They are not contributions to our community, they are
 temptations to settle for continuing nonfreedom.</p>
 
 <p>
 There are two common motivations to develop a free program.  One is
 that there is no program to do the job.  Unfortunately, accepting the
 use of a nonfree program eliminates that motivation.  The other is
 the will to be free, which motivates people to write free replacements
 for nonfree programs.  In cases like these, that motive is the only
 one that can do the job.  Simply by using a new and unfinished free
 replacement, before it technically compares with the nonfree model,
 you can help encourage the free developers to persevere until it
 becomes superior.</p>
 
 <p>
 Those nonfree programs are not trivial.  Developing free replacements
 for them will be a big job; it may take years.  The work may need the
 help of future hackers, young people today, people yet to be inspired
 to join the work on free software.  What can we do today to help
 convince other people, in the future, to maintain the necessary
 determination and persistence to finish this work?</p>
 
 <p>
 The most effective way to strengthen our community for the future is
 to spread understanding of the value of freedom&mdash;to teach more
 people to recognize the moral unacceptability of nonfree software.
 People who value freedom are, in the long term, its best and essential
 defense.</p>
 
 <div class="infobox extra" role="complementary">
 <hr />
 <p>Originally published on <cite>NewsForge</cite>.</p>
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 <p>Copyright &copy; 2004, 2021 Richard Stallman</p>
 
 <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative
 Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p>
 
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 <p class="unprintable">Updated:
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 $Date: 2021/09/10 10:58:36 $
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