BeOpen.com: Richard Stallman's Response to Warwick Allison of Troll Tech | Linux Today

BeOpen.com: Richard Stallman’s Response to Warwick Allison of Troll Tech

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Jul 17, 2000

[ Thanks to Domenic R.
Merenda
for this link. ]

“Warwick Allison in your interview says some confused things
about the GPL. To prevent the readers from being misled, would you
please post this response?…”

“But Allison’s implication that the GPL is meant to stop
someone from making money is just plain wrong; in fact, the freedom
to sell copies for a profit is part of the freedom that the GPL
protects.
Being for freedom and community does not mean being
against profit.”

“When Red Hat Software refused to include KDE/Qt in their
GNU/Linux system, they did something unusual for a company: they
acted for the sake of the community’s freedom rather than for
short-term expediency. You called this “strange”–I call it
admirable. One view criticizes them as foolish for declining a
selfish opportunity, the other praises them for caring about the
community. It is a difference of values.”

Complete
Story

Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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