Q&A: Richard Stallman
As founder of the Free Software Foundation, how would you define free software?
Free software means software that respects users' freedom. More specifically it means you as a user have these four essential freedoms:
1) To run the program as you wish.
2) To study the source code and change it, and thus make the program
do what you wish.
3) To redistribute exact copies when you wish – this is the freedom
to help your neighbour.
4) To distribute copies of your modified versions when you wish – this is the freedom to contribute to your community.
With these four freedoms, we users have control of our computing, both individually and collectively. A free program develops democratically under the control of its users, whereas a proprietary program develops under the dictatorship of its owner and imposes that owner’s power on its users.
The choice before you is the choice between freedom, co-operation and democracy on one hand, and subjugation, isolation and exploitation on the other.
You are keen to dissociate yourself from the open source community. Could you explain how it differs from free software?
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