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www/philosophy gates.html
|
From: |
Karl Berry |
|
Subject: |
www/philosophy gates.html |
|
Date: |
Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:46:12 +0000 |
CVSROOT: /web/www
Module name: www
Changes by: Karl Berry <karl> 08/07/11 23:46:12
Modified files:
philosophy : gates.html
Log message:
text updates per rms
CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/gates.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.4&r2=1.5
Patches:
Index: gates.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/gates.html,v
retrieving revision 1.4
retrieving revision 1.5
diff -u -b -r1.4 -r1.5
--- gates.html 10 Jul 2008 15:28:23 -0000 1.4
+++ gates.html 11 Jul 2008 23:46:06 -0000 1.5
@@ -9,23 +9,23 @@
</p>
<blockquote>
-<p><em>(This is an article published in BBC News in 2008.)</em></p>
+<p><em>(This article was <a
+href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7487060.stm";>published by
+BBC News in 2008</a>.)</em></p>
</blockquote>
- <p><strong>To pay so much attention to Bill Gates' retirement is
+ <p>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>
+ Microsoft—like many other software companies—imposes on its
+ customers.</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>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. 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
@@ -33,43 +33,32 @@
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 computerists specially hate Gates and Microsoft. They have
+ plenty of reasons. Microsoft persistently engages in anti-competitive
+ behaviour, and has been convicted three times. (Bush, who let
+ Microsoft off the hook for the second US conviction, was invited to
+ Microsoft headquarters to solicit funds for the 2000 election. In the
+ UK, Microsoft established a major office in Gordon Brown's
+ constituency. Both lawful, both potentially corrupting.)
<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>
+ won't use it. (In some countries you can get a refund, but the effort
+ required is daunting.) 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>Then there are the gratuitous incompatibilities and obstacles to
+ interoperation with other software. (This is why the EU required
+ Microsoft to publish interface specifications.) 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>
+ which most people don't recognize: proprietary software.</p>
<p>Microsoft's software is distributed under licenses that keep
users divided and helpless. The users are divided because they
@@ -77,51 +66,35 @@
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>If you're a programmer and you want to change the software, for
+ yourself or for someone else, you can't. 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”.
+ 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. Gates is personally identified with it, due to
+ his infamous open letter which rebuked microcomputer users for sharing
+ copies of his software. 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>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>
+ other companies do the same thing. It's wrong—no matter who does
+ it. 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>
+ software that users are free to share and modify. 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. 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,
@@ -136,10 +109,9 @@
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>
+ <p>Gates may be gone, but the walls and bars of proprietary software
+ he helped create remain—for now. Dismantling them is up to
+ us.</p>
</div>
@@ -192,7 +164,7 @@
<p>
Updated:
<!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2008/07/10 15:28:23 $
+$Date: 2008/07/11 23:46:06 $
<!-- timestamp end -->
</p>
</div>