Proprietary software considered less useful

Posted Jul 5, 2012 15:21 UTC (Thu) by mikov (guest, #33179)
In reply to: Proprietary software considered less useful by man_ls
Parent article: Zacchiroli: working with FSF on Debian Free-ness assessment

Hmm. It is harmful to users if they want to unrar from a platform for which the non-free version doesnt exist.

Proprietary software considered less useful

Posted Jul 5, 2012 17:34 UTC (Thu) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link]

That means that proprietary software can be harmful to some users -- who don't even have access to said proprietary software. However those users do have the motivation to write a free replacement... Not that I deny that effect, but it is, you will agree, a long shot.

I would even prefer the moral argument: proprietary software is harmful to the hearts and minds of users who accept the state of affairs.

But I think it is enough to say that proprietary software is less useful than free software, and work from there. Being a card-carrying member of the FSFE and a long-time Debian user, I like Debian's stance, although I would welcome a large, dire warning about nonfree repos.