A short critique of Stallmanism

Posted by JaseP on Sep 27, 2016 8:46 AM EDT
http://jancorazza.com/; By Jan Corazza
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“Free software” means software that respects users' freedom and community. Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. Thus, “free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer”. We sometimes call it “libre software,” borrowing the French or Spanish word for “free” as in freedom, to show we do not mean the software is gratis...

I like Stallman and tend to agree with him often: regarding software, or other politics. This article tries to constructively criticize some parts of the free software movement's ideology, which I collectively refer to as "Stallmanism" (only as pun). It is not an attempt at a personal attack on Stallman, and by reading further you will probably see my politics are very far from that: I coined the term Stallmanism simply because he is at the center of the movement and himself a primary source of the ideas I am critiquing.

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Every now and then another one pops up.. theBeez 8 2,171 Sep 28, 2016 6:33 PM

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