Can free software potentially displace proprietary technologies altogether?
Is this a worthwhile aim? Stallman: The word “technologies” includes many things that could hardly be done by any software. You can’t replace antibiotics or the fuel cell with free software, or with non-free software. So let’s look at a narrower question that makes sense: can all software be free, and should it? Non-free software tramples your freedom. It is distributed in a way designed to keep users divided and helpless: divided because they are forbidden to share, and helpless because none of them can change the software or even verify what it does. It’s unethical and it should not exist. No program is inherently non-free. It’s clear that we can develop free software for people’s needs, because we’ve already done the most important jobs. Our community’s resources of volunteers are constantly increasing, and since governments have always paid for a large fraction of software development, they can just as easily fund free software henceforth. Twenty years ago, nobody could be sure tha
Related Questions
- If I release software under en free software license that does not allow others tono make proprietary derived works, does this preclude me from making proprietary derived works myself?
- How Does a Proprietary Software Compete against Free Software?
- Is free software really as good as proprietary software?
