>>>>> Manoj Srivastava writes: MS> e) Explain to me how having a [free] client implementation is any MS> dofferent from the early days of GNU, when everyhing needed an MS> non-free OS to run on.
You aren't going far back enough. The two situations would only be comparable if nearly every Internet protocol had free clients but a proprietary server. Right now, it's the other way around. Let's examine the following question: ``Why does Microsoft have so much power?'' The answer: Microsoft fills a niche that was created by consumers. If you've ever done anything to help make proprietary software popular, then you are partly responsible for creating that niche. Back in the days when all software was free, a few programmers got the idea that it would be better to hide source code from other people. They incorrectly assumed that source-available software would not be able to make any money. They were not malicious, they just didn't want to starve. And so, they invented proprietary software. Consumers bought the software, because some of it filled niches that free software didn't. They were not malicious, they just wanted to use their computers. So, this situation continued for about fifteen years, until free software is virtually nonexistant. RMS gets screwed by Xerox one day and says to himself: ``This is a terrible injustice! Something must be done!'' He starts the GNU Project, whose goal was to allow people to use free software to do *everything* they want to do with their computers. This is an ongoing project, and will continue until the end of time, because people keep wanting to do more and more with their computers. Now consider the alternative: what if a few consumers had loudly boycotted proprietary software from the very beginning? This would have received media attention, and they could probably have convinced people to boycott proprietary software a lot faster than the marketers could convince them to *use* proprietary software. Microsoft would not exist, because they would have gone bankrupt in the first quarter unless they made their software free. We're already seeing right now that 15 years of conscious GNU activity (with such products as the GPL, gcc, etc) is almost enough time to undo the collective work of *every* proprietary software company that has ever existed. Not bad for a lone MIT hacker, eh? Fast-forward to 2020, in the future that James, Branden, and I all fear: all client software is free, but most servers are non-free, and very profitable. However, free servers are being implemented all the time, so the situation is not so bad. Then, somebody finally writes Beelzebub... a non-free server whose features nobody can live without, but is so horribly complex that reverse-engineering it would take 15 years. Everybody grows to depend on Beelzebub (naively using the nifty free client software), the company that created it makes a killing, and controls the world. They are a multinational corporation, and therefore no government has jurisdiction. Hell, 90% of the governments on Earth are indebted to them, thereby effectively being their slaves. Oops. Now, go back to the present: you can run GNU on your computer, and do most things without any proprietary software. But, what's this? You use gtkicq, and by doing so, make ICQ more popular, and create a market for a non-free server. If you had consciously chosen to use HCP (http://205.241.209.107/HCP/about.html), and told your friends about it, you would have done a lot to help boycott the ICQ server, and Mirabilis would have to seriously consider making their server free in order to compete. Now, if there's a `pure' distribution (or equivalently, gtkicq gets moved out of `main'), then I don't even have to *care* about the specific issue of ICQ to Do The Right Thing. HCP would have been my only option, and that's the end of that. Back to 2020: Beelzebub is written, but nobody buys it because it's proprietary. Oops. Guess they'll have to make it free software, or else they'll go bankrupt, and we'll get the source anyway. ;) You may think that you're a human being, but really, you're just a blip in the global economy. We blips have to consciously work together if we want to rule the economy rather than have it rule us. Capiche? -- Gordon Matzigkeit <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> //\ I'm a FIG (http://www.fig.org/) Committed to freedom and diversity \// I use GNU (http://www.gnu.org/)
