Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiba  Do you believe/like the ideas of the Free software movement? |
When I first read the GNU Manifesto ten or fifteen years ago, I was quite inspired:
In the long run, making programs free is a step toward the post-scarcity world, where nobody will have to work very hard just to make a living. People will be free to devote themselves to activities that are fun, such as programming, after spending the necessary ten hours a week on required tasks such as legislation, family counseling, robot repair and asteroid prospecting. There will be no need to be able to make a living from programming.
"Cool!" I said, "a post-scarcity world! Let's get to it!" And I did some work helping the free software movement along.
Since then I've seen that the world is full of arguments that we could have A if only we had B. And I've realized that most of the time there's then way too much focus on B. Instead, the best way to get A is to go and create A directly.
My observation now of the free software movement is that it focuses too much on proprietary software. Oh my gosh, look at all the proprietary software. Isn't it terrible that people have to use proprietary software. No software should be proprietary.
Proprietary software doesn't exist in
my life. I use only non-proprietary software. Some of that software calls itself free software, some calls itself open source software. But in any case, I don't use proprietary software because I don't want to. I don't want the spyware, the viruses. I don't want someone else to be running code I don't know about on my personal computer. I want my personal computer to belong to me, to do want I tell it to, not what someone else is telling it to.
You say it is hard for you to use Debian GNU/linux and not to run the proprietary flash player. So far, for myself, I haven't found it hard. There are times when I come across some web site and it says I need to install Flash to view their content. But I have yet to be inconvenienced, I have yet to come across a site that requires me to have Flash that I care whether I can see their content or not.
My feeling now is if someone wants to create some proprietary software, let them. Let them wall themselves off on their isolated island. I don't need to go batter down their walls for them.
That said, I'm not not in favor of monopolies enforced by the power of government. In medieval times, there was the idea that industries had to be protected to survive. The crown would grant a company an exclusive monopoly in a particular industry. Our copyright and patent system is a holdover of those medieval ideas, that programmers and inventors won't be able to make money if they aren't given monopolies enforced by the government. If a referendum was held today on whether to retain or repeal the copyright and patent laws, I myself would vote to repeal them. In my opinion, they're unnecessary and people waste a lot of time with them.
But it doesn't matter. The copyright and patent laws don't stand in the way of the post-scarcity world. Proprietary software doesn't stand in the way of free software. The way to get more free software is to create more free software. Someone, somewhere, has the same pain you do, and is working on a better free Flash player. That's how it works. If you want a good free Flash player, you can go find them and do something to help them.