www/philosophy gates.html

[Joakim Olsson]

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Joakim Olsson <jocke>   08/07/09 16:03:35

Added files:
        philosophy     : gates.html 

Log message:
        Added new file.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/gates.html?cvsroot=www&rev=1.1

Patches:
Index: gates.html
===================================================================
RCS file: gates.html
diff -N gates.html
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+++ gates.html  9 Jul 2008 16:03:14 -0000       1.1
@@ -0,0 +1,203 @@
+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<title> It's not the Gates, it's the bars - RMS</title>
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<h2> It's not the Gates, it's the bars</h2>
+
+<p>by <a href="http://www.stallman.org/";><strong>Richard
+Stallman</strong></a><br />
+Founder, Free Software Foundation
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p><em>(This is an article published in BBC News in 2008.)</em></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+  <p><strong>To pay so much attention to Bill Gates' retirement is
+  missing the point. What really matters is not Gates, nor
+  Microsoft, but the unethical system of restrictions that
+  Microsoft, like many other software companies, imposes on its
+  customers.</strong></p>
+
+  <p>That statement may surprise you, since most people interested
+  in computers have strong feelings about Microsoft. Businessmen
+  and their tame politicians admire its success in building an
+  empire over so many computer users.</p>
+
+  <p>Many outside the computer field credit Microsoft for advances
+  which it only took advantage of, such as making computers cheap
+  and fast, and convenient graphical user interfaces.</p>
+
+  <p>Gates' philanthropy for health care for poor countries has won
+  some people's good opinion. The LA Times reported that his
+  foundation spends five to 10% of its money annually and invests
+  the rest, sometimes in companies it suggests cause environmental
+  degradation and illness in the same poor countries.</p>
+
+  <p>Many computerists specially hate Gates and Microsoft. They
+  have plenty of reasons.</p>
+
+  <p><strong>'Solicit funds'</strong></p>
+
+  <p>Microsoft persistently engages in anti-competitive behaviour,
+  and has been convicted three times. George W Bush, who let
+  Microsoft off the hook for the second US conviction, was invited
+  to Microsoft headquarters to solicit funds for the 2000
+  election.</p>
+
+  <p>Many users hate the "Microsoft tax", the retail contracts that
+  make you pay for Windows on your computer even if you won't use
+  it.</p>
+
+  <p>In some countries you can get a refund, but the effort
+  required is daunting.</p>
+
+  <p>There's also the Digital Restrictions Management: software
+  features designed to "stop" you from accessing your files freely.
+  Increased restriction of users seems to be the main advance of
+  Vista.</p>
+
+  <p><strong>'Gratuitous incompatibilities'</strong></p>
+
+  <p>Then there are the gratuitous incompatibilities and obstacles
+  to interoperation with other software. This is why the EU
+  required Microsoft to publish interface specifications.</p>
+
+  <p>This year Microsoft packed standards committees with its
+  supporters to procure ISO approval of its unwieldy,
+  unimplementable and patented "open standard" for documents. The
+  EU is now investigating this.</p>
+
+  <p>These actions are intolerable, of course, but they are not
+  isolated events. They are systematic symptoms of a deeper wrong
+  which most people don't recognise: proprietary software.</p>
+
+  <p>Microsoft's software is distributed under licenses that keep
+  users divided and helpless. The users are divided because they
+  are forbidden to share copies with anyone else. The users are
+  helpless because they don't have the source code that programmers
+  can read and change.</p>
+
+  <p>If you're a programmer and you want to change the software,
+  for yourself or for someone else, you can't.</p>
+
+  <p>If you're a business and you want to pay a programmer to make
+  the software suit your needs better, you can't. If you copy it to
+  share with your friend, which is simple good-neighbourliness,
+  they call you a "pirate".</p>
+
+  <p><strong>'Unjust system'</strong></p>
+
+  <p>Microsoft would have us believe that helping your neighbour is
+  the moral equivalent of attacking a ship.</p>
+
+  <p>The most important thing that Microsoft has done is to promote
+  this unjust social system.</p>
+
+  <p>Gates is personally identified with it, due to his infamous
+  open letter which rebuked microcomputer users for sharing copies
+  of his software.</p>
+
+  <p>It said, in effect, "If you don't let me keep you divided and
+  helpless, I won't write the software and you won't have any.
+  Surrender to me, or you're lost!"</p>
+
+  <p><strong>'Change system'</strong></p>
+
+  <p>But Gates didn't invent proprietary software, and thousands of
+  other companies do the same thing. It's wrong, no matter who does
+  it.</p>
+
+  <p>Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, and the rest, offer you software that
+  gives them power over you. A change in executives or companies is
+  not important. What we need to change is this system.</p>
+
+  <p>That's what the free software movement is all about. "Free"
+  refers to freedom: we write and publish software that users are
+  free to share and modify.</p>
+
+  <p>We do this systematically, for freedom's sake; some of us
+  paid, many as volunteers. We already have complete free operating
+  systems, including GNU/Linux.</p>
+
+  <p>Our aim is to deliver a complete range of useful free
+  software, so that no computer user will be tempted to cede her
+  freedom to get software.</p>
+
+  <p>In 1984, when I started the free software movement, I was
+  hardly aware of Gates' letter. But I'd heard similar demands from
+  others, and I had a response: "If your software would keep us
+  divided and helpless, please don't write it. We are better off
+  without it. We will find other ways to use our computers, and
+  preserve our freedom."</p>
+
+  <p>In 1992, when the GNU operating system was completed by the
+  kernel, Linux, you had to be a wizard to run it. Today GNU/Linux
+  is user-friendly: in parts of Spain and India, it's standard in
+  schools. Tens of millions use it, around the world. You can use
+  it too.</p>
+
+  <p>Gates may be gone, but the walls and bars of proprietary
+  software he helped create remain, for now.</p>
+
+  <p>Dismantling them is up to us.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
+<div id="footer">
+
+<p>
+Please send FSF &amp; GNU inquiries to 
+<a href="mailto:address@hidden";><em>address@hidden</em></a>.
+There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> 
+the FSF.
+<br />
+Please send broken links and other corrections (or suggestions) to
+<a href="mailto:address@hidden";><em>address@hidden</em></a>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Please see the 
+<a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting
+translations of this article.
+</p>
+
+<p>Copyright &copy; 2008 Richard Stallman
+<br />
+Richard Stallman is the founder of the Free Software Foundation. You can copy
+and redistribute this article under the Creative Commons Attribution Noderivs
+3.0 license.</p>
+
+<p>
+Updated:
+<!-- timestamp start -->
+$Date: 2008/07/09 16:03:14 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div id="translations">
+<h4>Translations of this page</h4>
+
+<!-- Please keep this list alphabetical. -->
+<!-- Comment what the language is for each type, i.e. de is Deutsch.-->
+<!-- If you add a new language here, please -->
+<!-- advise address@hidden and add it to -->
+<!--  - /home/www/bin/nightly-vars either TAGSLANG or WEBLANG -->
+<!--  - /home/www/html/server/standards/README.translations.html -->
+<!--  - one of the lists under the section "Translations Underway" -->
+<!--  - if there is a translation team, you also have to add an alias -->
+<!--  to mail.gnu.org:/com/mailer/aliases -->
+<!-- Please also check you have the 2 letter language code right versus -->
+<!-- <URL:http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/ert/iso639.htm> -->
+<!-- Please use W3C normative character entities -->
+
+<ul class="translations-list">
+<!-- English -->
+<li><a href="/philosophy/gates.html">English</a>&nbsp;[en]</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
+</body>
+</html>