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On 24 May, 2013, at 12:49 pm, lug@xxxxxx wrote:
I sometimes wonder if Richard Stallman is the only person in the world actually using hardware that is running free software all the way down the chain? I like using open source software (and choose it when thereis a choice) but life is too short to worry about whether source code isavailable for every chip on every bit of hardware I might use.
RMS is one of the few people in the world who might conceivably be able to write everything he needs all the way down the chain. :-)
We're all compromised, but only necessarily by time, force majeure, and a monopoly, not by any failing of our own will and intent; and time is both on our side and stronger in the long run.
As freetards, we are both consumers and, crucially, producers; we are in a different relationship to the hardware than the passive role forced by non-free software vendors onto users, who must of course forever be nothing else but users. We do what we can, and what we can is a lot -- almost everything, and more every day. Already, that amounts to considerably more than anyone can do using only non-free software, with none of the concomitant risks of the non-free model.
The ideology of non-free is strong, but it will gradually lose its grip. In South Africa today it is impossible to find a single erstwhile supporter of apartheid; just so, the day will come (sorry; RMS would remind us: the day will *return*) when nobody will ever have been an apologist for non-free software. And just as when I'm in SA, I will smile ruefully at this revisionism, shake my head, and go on my way rejoicing in the triumph of good over evil.
-- Phil Hudson http://hudson-it.no-ip.biz @UWascalWabbit PGP/GnuPG ID: 0x887DCA63 -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq