www/philosophy fs-motives.html

[Richard M. Stallman]

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Richard M. Stallman <rms>       14/06/24 12:09:57

Modified files:
        philosophy     : fs-motives.html 

Log message:
        Improve start and end.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/fs-motives.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.27&r2=1.28

Patches:
Index: fs-motives.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/fs-motives.html,v
retrieving revision 1.27
retrieving revision 1.28
diff -u -b -r1.27 -r1.28
--- fs-motives.html     24 Jun 2014 12:02:13 -0000      1.27
+++ fs-motives.html     24 Jun 2014 12:09:55 -0000      1.28
@@ -6,35 +6,41 @@
 <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
 <h2>Motives For Writing Free Software</h2>
 
-<p>
-These are some of the motives for writing free software.
+<p>Don't make the mistake of supposing that all software development
+has one simple motive.  Here are some of the motives we know influence
+many people to write free software.
 </p>
 
 <dl>
 <dt>Fun.</dt>
+
 <dd>For some people, often the best programmers,
 writing software is the greatest fun, especially when there is no boss
 to tell you what to do.<br />
 Nearly all free software developers share this motive.</dd>
 
 <dt>Political idealism.</dt>
+
 <dd>The desire to build a world of
 freedom, and help computer users escape from the power of software
 developers.
 </dd>
 
 <dt>To be admired.</dt>
+
 <dd>If you write a successful, useful
 free program, the users will admire you.  That feels very good.
 </dd>
 
 <dt>Professional reputation.</dt>
+
 <dd>If you write a successful,
 useful free program, that will suffice to show you are a good
 programmer.
 </dd>
 
 <dt>Gratitude.</dt>
+
 <dd>If you have used the community's free
 programs for years, and it has been important to your work, you feel
 grateful and indebted to their developers.  When you write a program
@@ -43,6 +49,7 @@
 </dd>
 
 <dt>Hatred for Microsoft.</dt>
+
 <dd>
 It is a mistake <a href="/philosophy/microsoft.html">to focus our
 criticism narrowly on Microsoft</a>.  Indeed, Microsoft is evil, since
@@ -59,11 +66,13 @@
 </dd>
 
 <dt>Money.</dt>
+
 <dd>A considerable number of people are paid to
 develop free software or have built businesses around it.
 </dd>
 
 <dt>Wanting a better program to use.</dt>
+
 <dd>People often work on improvements in programs they use, in order to
 make them more convenient.  (Some commentators recognize no motive
 other than this, but their picture of human nature is too narrow.)
@@ -88,11 +97,6 @@
 <p>Human nature is complex, and it is quite common for a person to
 have multiple simultaneous motives for a single action.</p>
 
-<p>Free software projects, and policies that affect software development
-(such as laws), can't limit themselves to maximising the profit motive.
-When encouraging software development is the goal, all these motivations
-have to be considered, not just any particular one.</p>
-
 <p>Each person is different, and there could be other motives that are
 missing from this list.  If you know of other motives not listed here,
 please send email to
@@ -157,7 +161,7 @@
 
 <p class="unprintable">Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2014/06/24 12:02:13 $
+$Date: 2014/06/24 12:09:55 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>