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What should I say if people suggest Free Software is for tree-hugging hippies?

April 26, 2017Free hippies hugging people Software tree

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What should I say if people suggest Free Software is for tree-hugging hippies?

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We use the four freedoms of software to ensure that software users have a certain standard of rights. Software development and usage is still a new activity, and it’s history and philosophical thinking is still relatively shallow. People using software don’t have many rights and they are being exploited. Free Software is about setting a measure for how people should be treated.If you’re talking to a business audience, you can describe this as a procurement policy. Procurement policies usually spell out minimum requirements for purchasing and usage:”Software providers must not prevent the company from seeing what the software does””Software providers must not prevent the company from making improvements, customising, fixing bugs – or commissioning others to do these things for the company””Software providers will not prevent the publication of any improvements which the collective users of the software make or commission.