One Richard Stallman isn't enough, we need a lot more to save individual freedoms in computing

We live in a world full of materialist and greedy capitalists who don't give a crap about individual liberties and freedoms.




RMS is one rare individual who goes to such extremities like avoiding proprietary software entirely which is practically impossible for most of us individuals.

Forget switching entirely to free software or even open source (FOSS), most of us aren't even prepared to adopt Linux, we are too addicted and accustomed to the comfort that Windows provides.

Munich city administration tried to do that but it somehow didn't work. Either the people were too much addicted to Microsoft Office or the lobbyists succeeded in throwing out Linux, nobody knows. But it certainly was a huge defeat for the FOSS ecosystem.

FOSS shouldn't be limited in its use to a few technologists working at startup IT firms but it should make its way into the real world too. As long as the commoners don't start using Linux and FOSS, the battle for individual freedoms isn't really won.

Luminaries like RMS are doing a great job of fighting against this corporate greed and spreading the gospel of free software but he is just one guy. The tribe of RMS should expand, more and more people should join his cause.

While several large tech firms support the open source foundation (OSI), not many support the Richard Stallman's foundation (FSF). The reason is that the latter supports the GPL way  of doing things which ensures individual freedoms and liberties apart from making the source code of a software freely available.

This must change now, more and more people should support the FSF. Why is there just one RMS to begin with, why is there not an ecosystem of several RMSs? This is an important question we should be asking ourselves every now and then otherwise posterity will be asking tougher questions to us that we will find difficult to answer.

Comments