Bonum Certa Men Certa

User Libre: Free Computing For Everyone, Start With Perfection



2020 figosdev

Index



Canadian Thanksgiving perfected
Intro / Chapter 1: Start With Perfection*



Summary: "As the threats to user freedom evolve, so too must the response to those threats. So long as freedom remains the first priority, worthwhile responses will give more power to every user, and keep limits on how much control can be imposed by developers."

In the early days of computing, when computers were too large and expensive for anyone but a government, large business or institution to own, software was not a product -- it was simply work.



In 1980, software became copyrightable in the United States. Prior to this, companies were hiring computer programmers out of university settings and using Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) to keep them from sharing the source code to their programs. It is from this source code that most software is created.

"You can't actually create a legal monopoly on putting together certain ingredients and making a certain dish, but as long as there are unique expressions (wording) of a particular recipe, that particular wording is copyrightable."Before there were programming languages to write source code in however, there were simple processor instructions that could be keyed into the machine, toggled in on switches, or even punched into cards or paper tape.

When you punch a series of numbers along with plus or minus keys on a calculator, you are telling the machine to move numeric values into certain places in the processor. Early programming was very similar.

The transformation of computing from work that assists an industry to an industry in its own right, is not unlike the transformation of years of cooking and handing down family recipes into fast food chains and best-selling cookbooks. You can't actually create a legal monopoly on putting together certain ingredients and making a certain dish, but as long as there are unique expressions (wording) of a particular recipe, that particular wording is copyrightable.

For several decades, and for at least a decade or two longer than "Open Source", the Free Software movement has worked to liberate every user from a fast-food Hell of proprietary computing. Its founder Richard M. Stallman ("rms") and his organisation, the Free Software Foundation, have long fought efforts to poach free coders for proprietary work in unethical companies.

"For several decades, and for at least a decade or two longer than "Open Source", the Free Software movement has worked to liberate every user from a fast-food Hell of proprietary computing. Its founder Richard M. Stallman ("rms") and his organisation, the Free Software Foundation, have long fought efforts to poach free coders for proprietary work in unethical companies."After nearly 40 years and a number of outstanding successes, Free Software is once again struggling with an industry eager to poach free coders. And to stop that from happening to this generation, Free Software will need to "bootstrap" a slightly new approach, to respond to the new ways the industry has learned to thwart user freedom.

The goal of Free Software is simple and perfect: for all software to be free. This refers to freedom, not price -- Free Software does not mean that commercialisation itself is a problem; you can get paid to work on Free software. But what many companies prefer to do is trade concessions and get the user (or developers) to make compromises that put companies back in control again.

"Most of the compromises rms has been attacked for not supporting, are compromises that would limit the freedom of the user in exchange for some short-term and subjective benefit."For most of his career, people have attacked rms for being unwilling to compromise -- but this is exactly where we want a movement to start: with a no-compromise quest for freedom and liberty. Most of the compromises rms has been attacked for not supporting, are compromises that would limit the freedom of the user in exchange for some short-term and subjective benefit.

If we allow such compromises at all, we must be certain that they do not add up to a major erosion of user freedom. And where freedom must draw the line, is that compromises should be optional -- while freedom remains our first priority. As the threats to user freedom evolve, so too must the response to those threats. So long as freedom remains the first priority, worthwhile responses will give more power to every user, and keep limits on how much control can be imposed by developers.

Licence: Creative Commons CC0 1.0 (public domain) ________ *Each chapter includes its own license information; most of the chapters are CC0.

Recent Techrights' Posts

In defence of JD Vance, death of Pope Francis
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Three Years in Prison for Disney Employee’s ‘Menu Hacking’: The Economic Fallout of Digital Menus
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Approaching 10,000 Articles/Pages Since Going Static
Trying to silence or derail the site was always a dumb strategy
Microsoft is Shedding Off Loads of Staff and That Can be Dangerous Too
Working for Microsoft is a choice; nobody forces you to do it
Richard Stallman and the Unix Philosophy
When asked about systemd people must remember that RMS speaks as an active Board member of the FSF and also the founder of the FSF
Get Rid of Back Doors, Don't Obsess Over Bounties and Other Corporate PR Stunts (or Needless Reboot Rituals)
Security as a term has mostly lost its meaning due to repeated misuse for many years
Serial Sloppers Are Killing the Web (They Probably Don't Care, Either)
Slop is a disease on the Web
 
Links 26/04/2025: Facebook Layoffs Again, Remembering What's Real, and Say No to Mass Surveillance
Links for the day
Links 26/04/2025: NOAA Budget Cuts and "Dog Days Ahead"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 25, 2025
Links 25/04/2025: Slop Fatigue and Patent Judges Flocking to Fake, Unconstitutional and Illegal Kangaroo Court (UPC, Captured 'Justice')
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Night Manager and Devuan in Hosting
Links for the day
Windows Falls to New Lows in Nicaragua, Now Below a Quarter (It Used to be Almost 100%)
Another all-time low for Windows
The Cost (to Linux) of LLM Slop
Slop 'artists' like Fagioli are far from harmless
Links 25/04/2025: Ubisoft Spyware, Hegseth Fails at Tech on Every Level
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Food Forest Update and Facebook Destroying the Net
Links for the day
Streaming Apps Are “Investor Fraud” That Kills the Planet
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Things Get Increasingly Nasty at Microsoft Ahead of the Fake Results and May's Mass Layoffs Wave
They try to get people to 'resign' so that they won't count as layoffs and the company's 'wellbeing' will seem better
IBM's Debt Ballooned by 8.5 Billion Dollars in Just 3 Months!
Hallmark of a company in a state of disarray, trying to spend its way out of trouble
Big Trouble in GNOME
even GNOME people admit the CoC went wrong
Slopping the Trough: Disney Plus Loses Billions and the Decline of Physical Media in America
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 24, 2025
Links 24/04/2025: GAFAM Problems and No Peace (or Ceasefire) in Sight
Links for the day
Slopfarms on the Web Almost Always Generate Anti-Linux FUD When They Produce "Linux" Output
Welcome to the dying Web
Richard Stallman's Oxford Talk Has Just Ended, Here Are Some Photos
he might hop over to another European country
Gemini Links 24/04/2025: Birthday and Good Work of Academia in Esotericism
Links for the day
Links 24/04/2025: EU fines Apple and Facebook, Another Microsoft GitHub Security Blunder
Links for the day
New Article Explains How the GPL Came About and WordPress Having Copyleft Obligations
Having been involved in the WordPress development community since almost the beginning, I know why it chose the GPL and how it restricts abuse by Automattic
IBM Gained Almost 6 Billion Dollars in "Goodwill" Value in Just 3 Months, According to IBM
Congrats to the management!
In Belarus, Yandex is Now Measured as 50 Times More 'Popular' (by Usage) Than Microsoft
Yandex continues to gain, whereas Bing cannot even register at 1%. Last month it was registered or measured at a measly 0.65%.
IBM Cannot Lie to Shareholders Anymore
"I would not be surprised if we see a layoff every quarter this year."
Dr Richard Stallman (RMS) Gives Talk in Oxford University in 4 Hours
If you live nearby, go there (it's free as in gratis)
Using a Law Firm's Licence to Exercise Politics Through Frivolous SLAPPs and Nastygrams (to Silence People, Remove Pages, Demand Fake or Forced 'Apologies')
Things must be getting really bad when lawyers act for raving antisemites
We're Working to Make Full-Site Search Available
This site has over 1,000 'wiki' pages, many thousands of documents, several thousands of videos, and about 50,000 blog posts or articles. We need to make them easier to find/navigate.
Links 24/04/2025: IBM Loses Many Contracts, Intel to Lay Off Over 20% (Not Counting Those Who Leave 'Voluntarily')
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Can Explain to Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society Why LLM Slop is Not Artificial Intelligence and Why It Hurts Society
another 'crop' of LLM slop that damages GNU/Linux and facts
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 23, 2025