LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Alex Garner <linuxsa@bourbon.lynx.net.au>
  To  : LinuxSA <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Mon, 05 Apr 1999 13:26:19 +0930

'Free' Software (long) (WAS: Just an introductory comment)

Some people on this list seem to have been a little confused about the
concept of 'free' software lately, and since RMS has just given an
interview on the subject
(http://www.linuxsoft.net/departments/news/stallman_interview0399.html), I
thought I'd quote a few parts of his interview to clarify things.

Basically, you have to remember that you can 'make money' out of 'free'
software. Free software gives you freedom. It isn't a reflection on how
much you do or don't pay to get it. 'Free' describes the situation where
you are free to do what you want. The real confusion comes when people ask,
"...then how do you make money out of it?"

It seems people (even on this list), cannot understand how a system that
_doesn't_ strip people of freedoms, and therefore _doesn't_ allow for a
monopoly, can make money. It's people's continual acceptance of monopolies
that makes Bill Gates worth 100 billion dollars. That is an awful lot of
money, and it was made by removing freedoms and creating a monopoly. I
don't have a problem with Bill Gates. In fact I quite admire his business
prowess, to embrace and utilize a concept that so many people don't have a
problem with. The monopoly. It's not Bill who is the evil one. We
constantly search for a reason why software with freedoms can't work.
"Someone has to be making a buck somewhere!" They are, but not in the
conventional and traditional ways. You have to start to change some very
fundamental ways that you think, before you will fully understand "Free
software, and how to make money out of it." You don't have to be able to
move towards a monopoly to make money. If a concept allows for such
freedom, that the very core of your concept can be taken by someone else,
you can still make money. Stop thinking proprietry, start reading.

I reccomend reading the whole interview, here are the important bits...

	[LSFT] The Free Software concept is hard for some people to
	understand. How does a programmer [write free software] and
	still feed his family.

	[STALLMAN] You're confusing two totally unrelated issues.
	Totally separate issues. It's not unusual to confuse them.
	First of all, the thing to realize is free software has
	nothing to do with money. It's about freedom. And the
	reason I started the project to make a free operating system
	is so we could have freedom and still use computers.

	If you're using a non free program, you've given up your
	freedom, your freedoms been taken away by the owner of the
	software, who has power to control what you can do. And it's
	a particularly horrible kind of power, because it's a power
	to prohibit cooperation. To say, "Your're not allowed to
	share the knowledge you use, with him or her," that's
	monstrous.

... snip ...

	[LSFT] Ok, you've hit upon an important issue, convenience.
	It is convenient, for me to go down to the box every morning
	and put thirty five cents in and get the Mercury News. I
	could just as easily get a lot of the information that I buy
	the paper for, such as what time are the movies playing,
	what's going on in the world for myself, but it's more
	convenient to go....

	[STALLMAN] I have nothing against that. We're talking at
	cross purposes. I've been talking about do we have freedom
	or not. That is not the same question as you pay money or
	not. These are not related questions. You think they're the
	same question. That's the confusion.

	Most people think they're the same question, but they're
	not the same question. We are selling copies of free
	software. People are paying us money to get copies of free
	software. But our software's not proprietary. Once you get
	a copy, you have the freedom that I say everyone should have.

	So, there are these two independent questions. One is, does
	the software allow you to have freedom or does it restrict
	you?

	The other question is did you pay to get it or not? All
	four combinations are possible. There's gratis which means
	you don't have to pay for it, and there's free meaning you
	have freedom in using it.

Cheers

Alex!


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