Reykjavík Grapevine - 15.07.2011, Qupperneq 10

10
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2011
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The Future Belongs To Us
Richard Stallman is not a man
known to compromise. This is
the case whether you're talking
about software freedom or where
to conduct an interview (hint: he
really likes Danish open-faced
sandwiches). This developer, a
man who attended Harvard and
MIT before almost single-hand-
edly creating the GNU operat-
ing system, still prefers to use
a cheap Chinese netbook as his
personal computer, as it runs en-
tirely on free software (see side-
bar on what kind of ‘free’ we're
talking about here). In fact, this
is one of two things emphasised
to me before conducting the in-
terview: understand the differ-
ence between ‘free’ and ‘open
source,’ and do not say ‘Linux’ to
him—say instead ‘GNU/Linux.’
The insistence is far from pedantic,
though. What we know of as ‘Linux’
today began in the ‘80s as Stall-
man's GNU operating system, with
Linus Torvalds' Linux kernel added
to it . These humble beginnings have
led to hundreds, if not thousands, of
GNU/Linux ‘distros’—types of oper-
ating systems—as well as veritable
avalanche of developers coding free
software.
DO YOU WANT A MALICIOUS
CAR?
Today, Richard travels and lectures
on free software and computer
liberty both online and offline. He
considers free software a matter of
human rights. A living legend in the
tech world, our interview was briefly
interrupted at one point by a star-
struck German tourist who recog-
nised him. When I asked if this sort
of thing happens a lot, he shrugged.
“Not that much. It happens once in
a while.”
Which is part of his character—
despite his stature in the tech world
and his fire-brand status in the
free software movement, Stallman
is soft-spoken and easygoing, liv-
ing modestly and speaking in plain
terms when sharing his ideas with
laypeople, without showing a hint of
frustration or impatience.
One commonly used metaphor
regarding the difference between
free software and proprietary soft-
ware is that using the latter is like
driving a car with the hood welded
shut. However, some would argue
that they don't necessarily want to
understand how the engine works;
they just want it to go.
“Do you want the car to be ma-
licious?” asks Richard. “You don't
need to know how to programme
yourself to benefit from the four
freedoms [of free software]. Any
user can use Freedom 0 and Free-
dom 2. And you might not want to
know how to repair or adapt the
software, but you can pay someone
else to do it for you.” He under-
scores that numerous proprietary
applications use malicious means of
tracking what a user does, or where
they go on the internet, which the
user cannot disable, if they're even
aware they exist. “The only defence
is to use free software.”
IDEALISM, FUN AND HATRED!
However, looking around in the free
software community, there might be
a whole lot of developing going on,
but there doesn't seem to be a lot of
money changing hands. Why would
a developer choose to get into the
world of free software?
Richard says. “First, there's polit-
ical idealism—wanting freedom and
wanting others to have freedom.
Another motive is fun. Programming
is tremendous fun. I think everyone
who's working on free software is
having fun. Another motive is to be
admired. People like to be admired.
If you make a free programme and a
lot of people like it, they're going to
admire you and it feels good. Anoth-
er is getting a professional reputa-
tion as a good programmer. There's
nothing better for your professional
reputation than to be able to say,
'Here's the programme I wrote.
Read the code and you'll see how
good a job I did.' Another motive is
gratitude. If you've been using free
software for years and appreciate it ,
then when you write a programme
that could be generally useful, that's
your opportunity to pay forward
what you have gotten from the com-
munity. Another motive is hatred for
Microsoft.”
However, Richard qualifies this
observation: “Now, I think it's a mis-
take to focus the hatred on Micro-
soft. Because the problem is bigger
than that. The problem is non-free
software, and Microsoft makes non-
free software, but it's not alone. The
problem with focusing just on Mi-
crosoft is you might start to think
that anything that competes with
Microsoft is therefore good. But this
is not about choosing a different
master. Freedom means not having
a master. So, to me it doesn't matter
who the developer of the non-free
programme is; it's equally unjust.”
Richard does say there are peo-
ple being paid to make free soft-
ware, that “it's not shockingly rare,
but they are a minority.” Hence the
difference between ‘free’ as in ‘no
cost’ and ‘free’ as in ‘provides free-
dom.’
FREEDOM!
Another of the more common con-
cerns people bring up when pre-
sented with the option of switching
to free software, or using a GNU/
Linux distro, is the fear that there
will be a very steep learning curve.
Richard dismisses this fear outright.
“Actually, if you want to use it
through graphical interfaces, you
might not even notice it's a different
system.” He recounted the story of
someone he knew that replaced his
school's computers with GNU/Linux
instead of Windows, and then told
everyone there'd been an upgrade.
“And people just used it,” Stallman
says, smiling. “Of course, some
things were different, but they fig-
ured it out.”
When it comes to the future of
GNU, and free software in general,
Richard insists that he doesn't keep
track of how it's growing. “I don't
have time to try and measure our
progress. That would be a lot of
work. I have nothing against it , but I
have other work to do. Namely, mak-
ing more progress.”
Richard doesn't see himself as
being primarily in the role of GNU's
main coder anymore—his aspira-
tions have more to do with ideals.
“I don't focus my work on making
it technically better. There are a lot
of people doing that, so I leave that
to them. I focus on a different part
of the job that most of our commu-
nity doesn't do. In order to estab-
lish lasting freedom, it's not enough
just to give people freedom. You
have to teach them to appreciate it ,
and demand it, because otherwise
they'll let it drop. And they might
not even realise what's hurting them
when it does hurt them. So my work
is teaching people these types of
freedom, and to demand freedom in
their lives.”
Freedom | Now that's important!
Have you ever tried working with 'freeware'? Is it a rewarding and
fun experience? Oh by the way, Richard Stallman gave us some
crazy stickers. One says: "iBad! Bad for your freedom!"
An interview with freeware pioneer Richard Stallman
Words
Paul Fontaine
Photography
Julia Staples
What Does
“Free Software”
Mean?
This is an example of the limitations
of the English language. ‘Free soft-
ware’ in this sense means ‘software
you have the liberty to do with as
you wish’; not necessarily ‘free of
charge’, although that is often the
case. Stallman specifically identifies
four types of freedom that free soft-
ware provides:
The freedom to run the programme,
for any purpose (freedom 0).
The freedom to study how the pro-
gramme works, and adapt it to your
needs (freedom 1). Access to the
source code is a precondition for
this.
The freedom to redistribute cop-
ies so you can help your neighbour
(freedom 2).
The freedom to improve the pro-
gramme, and release your improve-
ments to the public, so that the
whole community benefits (freedom
3). Access to the source code is a
precondition for this.
Free Software Equivalents Of
Proprietary Software
One of the most common things
that intimidates people consider-
ing trying free software is the fear
that they won't be able to do all the
things they're used to doing on a PC
or Mac. On the contrary, though,
there is a free software equivalent
of just about everything the average
desktop user uses a computer for.
Here's a few examples:
iTunes = Rhythmbox. Inspired by
iTunes, and has features that in-
clude “Easy to use music browser,
Searching and sorting, Comprehen-
sive audio format support through
GStreamer, Internet Radio support,
Playlists”.
Windows Media Player = VLC
Media Player, famed app that is
known for being able to play pretty
much anything.
Photoshop = GIMP (GNU Im-
age Manipulation Programme),
a versatile and easy-to-use image
software programme that can “be
used as a simple paint programme,
an expert quality photo retouching
programme, an online batch pro-
cessing system, a mass production
image renderer, an image format
converter, etc. It has most of the
functionality of Photoshop but with-
out the cost.”
MSN Messenger, AIM, Yahoo,
ICQ, etc. = Pidgin, which is pretty
much the only chat client you need.
Add all of your different accounts to
just one software programme.
Outlook = Thunderbird, an email
client that can more or less do what
Outlook can.
Word = AbiWord, a fully function-
ing word-processing programme.