
The Sorcerer's Code: Richard Stallman’s quest to save us from a web of spyware - bilifuduo
https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201611/the-sorcerers-code?collection=1095151
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chinese_dan
" In the process, he and others created a free operating system, GNU"

He never created Linux or the 'GNU' operating system. Linux uses the GPL/GNU
license.

He created
[https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html](https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html)

"That’s a nonfree operating system. It tramples your freedom just by being
there.” Stallman explains that the operating system he helped birth can be
swapped in. “I hope you will escape from Apple’s power.”

I suppose it really depends on your perspective. I just bought a brand-new TV.
I don't really need to have the schematics to enjoy it.

The other side is that Stallman has tried to make open source software a law.
This would mean that a software developer would be forced, by law, to release
their source code.

This is considered freedom?

His ideals would make us all slaves to the big corporations, because they can
make money on support, while this doesn't really scale well for a small
company or single person.

I love open source, but it has slowly reduced the need to hire expensive
developers and many companies can now hire students to hack on open source for
much less. Why bother paying a software engineer when the engineers give out
their work for free? You can just as easily pay a software mechanic and still
get the job done.

Stallman doesn't see or care about this because he is insulated from it. He
has a cushy job doing speaking engagements and research for various education
institutions. He can pick his nose and eat his hair and still make
$250,000+/year.

Money is the only true way to have true freedom, because it allows you to make
your own decisions and it reduces the control others have over you. This is
the case now and probably will be as long as humans are alive.

We should be empowering developers to make more money and have more control
rather than less. This way, they can still make a good living with software
and if they choose, release open source software.

The entire idea of the GPL also doesn't really make sense. If a company
decides to use your software and not release changes, the original software is
still out there for everyone to use and the original owner still has claim to
it. The only thing you won't get is the changes, which aren't really yours in
the first place.

