The problem here (in my opinion), is that people don't see the ethical
problem, they see a "does it work" problem. I had a conversation with a
friend of mine today and the same words pop out of his mouth like anyone else
that has problems (one more time, in my opinion), to see the real problem. So
the discuss was around the fact that I was saying to him that I wouldn't
create a proprietary software because it would remove the freedoms of the
users, neither I would use a non-free software to make it just because it's a
popular software for gaming production (Unity), I continue saying that I
prefer something that can have bugs, but it's free (as in free speech), and
gives me the freedoms I want and need, than using something closed and "non
ethical" just because it's great, fun, and everyone uses.
The conversation then started to go around the fact that many people don't
care about the code, and if they don't know how to edit or even understand
it, and if the creator drop the project, then we will have a dead project.
But once again, anyone has the freedom to take it and do whatever he wants...
The best thing I can remember was when he bought Diablo III, and now he just
can't sell the game because of the DRM that makes a "strong glue" between
that particular game and registration code, and his own account with all the
vital informations (Credit Card etc..).
This is an example of the mentality of a lot of people outside, and it works
the same way for anything, software, drivers, hardware. People just feel the
need for things to work, and don't care about anything else.
Around me, a lot of people started to thing that I'm stupid (literally), just
because I refuse to use flash if the content they are showing me don't work
with gnash, lightspark or even html5 (and I already had the beautiful
occasion of laughing damn hard because an old flash video worked with gnash
but not with the newest versions of Adobe Flash).
As Richard Stallman said, it is not (only) about the Software, it is about
teaching people the ethical problem with proprietary software, but if the
person don't want to listen, then we can't force them, it's their own life,
we can just go see another person that want to learn. And works like that
allows to build some great communities like this one.
It is true that we (I say we but I'm a young trisquel user with just 1 week
of experience on this forum) have already found, and will find more and more
people don't understanding the "ethical" problem, and starting asking on the
forum for how to install X or Y proprietary software, and when the time comes
we need to make them understand what "we" are doing and what "we" are
fighting.
Yes RMS can be very radical, like when he says to Lunduke that he prefers
that Lunduke's children start "starving" instead of him (Lunduke) starts
producing proprietary software (okay very badly explained but I think you
know what I'm talking about). But has he (RMS) said, it is not a reason to
forget our freedom and our rights, we need to find a balance, and proprietary
software, should (in my opinion), never be near that balance.
The other problem is that it's hard to understand if a Software is or is not
Free, and what are the rights and the rules that he (developer or user) needs
to fallow).
As for Linus Torvalds, even knowing that I really admire this man, I think
that he is more from the side of the "I just want this to work nothing more
nothing less", and sometimes finish by accepting everything. I think we can
understand that (at some point), and this is why the Gnu Hurd kernel was
created (there is even some distributions around this kernel like the
ArchHurd).
So for summarize : Yes you are totally right :D
