:NewsForge: Your Software Rights or the Best Tools: Often a Sad Choice
NewsForge: Your Software Rights or the Best Tools: Often a Sad Choice Jan 8, 2005, 09 :00 UTC (16 Talkback[s]) (5338 reads) (Other stories by Jem Matzan)
"What do we do when we have a substandard free software product that we could use, but would be more productive with a proprietary competitor? What sacrifices should we make in order to use a free software program? Originally the GNU Project was intended to provide a free (as in rights) replacement for proprietary Unix -- the dominant industrial operating system at the time. This project was initiated with the understanding that proprietary software would have to be used until free alternatives were made available. Today we have many free replacements for proprietary programs, but are they truly equivalents? Because GNU Project and Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman's computing needs are met with BASH, GCC, GDB, and Emacs does not mean that the rest of us can safely cast off rights-restrictive software. Suggesting that we all switch to free software-only systems seems a bit pretentious and narrow-minded, considering the average user's desktop computing needs..."
