Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), has been known for his controversial and sometimes radical statements. So in many cases I don’t (fully) agree with Richard but in this article I like the gest of his article regarding proprietary software and the stranglehold it keeps on its users.

In the article Stallman calls copying software for neighbours a neighbourly thing to do. I feel that if the software is targeted at home users (with acceptable pricing) you should not copy the software. License a copy for a few bucks. However when software is targeted for business-use I don’t think home users should have to pay up. If I were Microsoft, only business/professional use of MS Office would require a license. Home use of MS Office would be free. Does Microsoft really believe that an eight year old who writes a letter to grandma should pay hunderds of dollars for an office license? I don’t think this is very realistic. I would like to see a business plan that projects expected revenue from eight year olds writing letters to grandma. Get out of here!

Read the view of Stallman on Microsoft, Bill Gates and proprietary software in general in his article. Stallman refers to an “infamous open letter” in his article which I reprinted below for your convenience.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 4th, 2008 at 12:04 and is filed under DRM, computer, freedom, opinion, programming, software, technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.