[Discuss] Stallman stubborn

[Derek Martin]

On Wed, Nov 11, 2015 at 11:01:50PM -0800, Rich Braun wrote:
> He'd already decided that software should be free, and explained
> that programmers shouldn't be in it for the money.
[...] 
> But I think back those 3 decades and see that RMS really meant those
> words he said to me. 

I don't think anyone who's REALLY paid any attention to rms doubts
that.  But it's naive and impractical.  Everyone needs to eat, and
nearly every one of us want--perhaps even need--a little bit extra
from our lives.  Writing software is not simple, and writing GOOD
software is actually pretty hard...  You ought to be able to earn a
decent living at it.  There are some very altruistic people who would
pass on that to do something "good" but most won't.

What I do think is, the operating system that runs your computer
should be included in the price, and it should not suck.  You should
not have to pay for incessant upgrades, and you should have access to
the source so that if it has deficiencies for your needs, you can
potentially address them.  But someone still has to pay for the work
to be done, in some fashion or other...

> Picture a world without FSF/LPF. Who else could have done it? 

I can't parse LPF, but I think BSD would have gotten there,
eventually... even without rms and the FSF.  Or someone else would
have done it...  Like Linus Torvalds.

-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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