| |||||||||||
Freedom of choiceFreedom of choicePosted May 3, 2008 11:45 UTC (Sat) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091)In reply to: Stallman: Can we rescue OLPC from Windows? by NigelK Parent article: Stallman: Can we rescue OLPC from Windows? Whatever Microsoft says in their astroturfing campaigns, "choice" is not "freedom". "Choice" is going to the store, studying the selection and picking up the product you prefer. "Freedom" is about opening up the endless possibilities offered to you. It is very convenient to restrict the discussion to "Windows vs Linux", but freedom is much more than that. On a free system you can install not only whatever distribution of GNU/Linux you prefer (or even without the "GNU/"), not even your own selection of packages, and not restricted to the versions offered on the net. You can install a host of alternative operating systems such as the *BSD family, Minix, and a few more. You can also create your own distribution, compile the software with the options you prefer or even write your own kernel. Microsoft doesn't offer you this freedom, mainly because they can't. That is why they talk about "choice", which is appropriate for consumers. What Stallman is saying is that an open education project should aim for "freedom", which is an entirely different beast. Even if people call him names because of that.
(Log in to post comments)
|
|||||||||||