Re: Free software
On 07/18/2017 07:18 PM, Ben Finney wrote:
Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi> writes:
Doug [2017-07-18 13:25:34-05] wrote:
My point is that most of the folks who complain about code not being
free to modify are not capable of modifying it, so why do they
complain?
Free software has the advantage that it does not depend on just one
company and its interests. A free software community can maintain code
longer and can port it to different platforms. The community benefits
even if only some people actually modify the software.
By analogy: I am not capable of maintaining the house I live in, let
alone of making significant improvements.
Yet I benefit from the fact that anyone sufficiently motivated can learn
to do so and they don't need permission from the people who made the
house.
If anyone who wanted to improve the house I live in were prevented from
doing so without the express permission of the people who made the
house, you're damned right I would complain.
Well, complain! The local government has the right to prescribe
what you can do to the house! You can't even build an INSIDE
stairway to the attic that is not some specified width, with
steps a specified spacing and depth. (Islip Town, New York.
My son's house. His existing stairway is 6" too narrow, and he cannot
modify it in any way without it making it conform exactly to code, which
would be a major modification to the house.)
--doug
I may have no intention of ever doing so myself, but I want a wide-open
market of people who can do so if I ask, who have learned because no law
stops them from doing so.
Free software includes that same freedom for software: Everyone is free
to learn about it, and try to improve it, and share their work with
others who want it.
Because everyone has that freedom, we don't all have to exercise it. But
we must defend it for everyone, and look with suspicion on anyone – even
those who sell video cards – who tries to deny us that freedom.
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