Your message provides a clear example of the need to spread awareness of the issues of software freedom, even inside our community. Many hackers come to appreciate free programs for practical reasons, and even contribute to their development, without appreciating freedom.
What freedoms exactly? See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html for the list of the four freedoms. The computer users I know can't code. What are they going to with the source code they have the freedom to modify? It is a basic logical error to argue that certain freedom is unimportant on the grounds that there are people who don't appreciate it or don't know how to exercize it. Free software refers to four freedoms that work together. All users can exercize freedoms 0 and 2, the freedom to run the program and the freedom to distribute copies. These activities do not require programming skill. Freedoms 1 and 3, the freedom to study and change the source and the freedom to distribute modified versions, involve programming. People can exercise them only to the extent of their programming skill. But when others change the program and release a modified version, you can then install it if you think it is better, even if you don't know how to program. The result of the four freedoms is that the users are in control of what the program does. Free software develops democratically under the control of its users. Non-free software is under the control of its developer, who has power over the users. _______________________________________________ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list