>Blatantly false. The only person I am in contorl of is myself. I can't
prevent others from murdering, or using drugs, or using non-free software,
etc.
The whole purpose of free software is to liberate the user from the unjust
yoke of the proprietary developer. With software, there are just two
possibilities; either the user controls the program, or the program controls
the users. If the program controls the users, that means it is a proprietary
program, and through this software, the developer wields power and control
over what the user can and cannot do to their copy of the code.
>...because he never lost site of the big picture, the world was improved and
everyone now has access to free software.
Agree.
>RMS is no fool and neither am I. It is not a betrayal at all when your only
option is non-free software.
Disagree. Only a fool would tell himself that using a proprietary version of
a program, rather than not using a program at all is a better solution. In
virtually every instance it is better to be inconvenienced by not using a
proprietary program at all than using it. You can spin it any way you like,
but justifying it by comparing your actions to RMS is laughable. RMS used the
proprietary UNIX system so that he could reverse engineer it; he did it so
that users of computers could be free. The only reason to use proprietary
software in any case is for reverse engineering. If you aren't going to make
a free alternative to the program, then I don't think your excuse holds
water.
>RMS knew better
RMS knew better because there was no free operating system in the first place
during the late 1970s/ early 80s. That's why he created GNU - he was
engineering freedom from an ugly and disgusting spectre called proprietary
software. He had no choice.
