Non-free software doesn't help the cause

Howdy LWN,

The weekly edition for 28-Jul-2002 says:
> As long as those [proprietary] vendors comply with the licenses of the
> free software they are using, they are only helping the Linux cause by
> porting their products.

If by this you mean "they are helping GNU/Linux become more popular",
this is not the cause of free software.  The cause of free software is
to promote freedom for users and developers of software; the offering of
a non-free product is not helpful to that cause.

> It will be a long time before free packages rival the variety of
> proprietary software out there. Where are the free business plan
> writers, training systems, contact managers, math tutors, foreign
> language instructors, genealogy assistants, home designers, tax
> preparers, high-end games, etc.?

It will be an even longer time before we see free software that performs
these tasks, if we accept and use non-free programs with the same
functionality.  The more widely used such non-free tools become, the
less impetus there will be for free replacements to be written and the
harder it will be to get people to try them.

Accepting and offering non-free software simply sends a confused
message, and makes the task of discussing freedom that much harder for
everyone.

> Until we have filled in those gaps, we should be friendlier to
> software vendors who make Linux systems more attractive to more
> people. That means standards compliance, stable interfaces, and an end
> to outright hostility toward software vendors.

Any hostility toward software vendors is misplaced; it is the offerings
of these vendors that are the issue.  The offering of a program on terms
that require the surrender of essential freedoms is itself an act
hostile to the user's freedom, even if the vendor doesn't see it that
way.  Many people react strongly to threats to their freedom; software
vendors accustomed to doing business on such terms may well regard such
reactions as "hostile", but this is a result of the conditions they
attach to their offerings.

If an offer of a non-free program is made, this advances the cause of
free software not at all, and those who value their freedom will not
regard the non-free program as an option.  If people go beyond that to
"outright hostility", that is outside the philosophy of free software
and becomes something more personal.

"No thanks" is not hostility, it is the freedom of choice in action.  

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