76 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
76 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
---
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date: 2012-12-17T00:00:00-05:00
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title: "Misunderstanding the Free Software Philosophy"
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tags: [en_us, english, fedora-planet, rant, free-software]
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---
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This will probably be one of those controversial posts, but I really
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cannot just be silent about a behaviour that I am constantly seeing
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around me.
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Since my childhood, I am fascinated by the power of the words. I always
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liked reading a lot, and despite not knowing the grammar rules (either
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in pt\_BR or en\_US, the former being my native language, the latter
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being the only idiom I can consider myself fluent in), I am deeply
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interested in what words (and their infinite meanings) can do to us. (If
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you can read in portuguese, and if you also like to study or admire in
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this subject, I strongly recommend a romance by José Saramago called "*O
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Homem Duplicado*"). So now, what I am seeing everywhere is that people
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are being as careless as ever with words, their meanings, and specially
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their implications.
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The problem I am seeing, and it is a serious problem in my opinion, is
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the constant use of the term "**free software**" when "**open source**"
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should be used. This is obviously not a recent problem, and I really
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cannot recall when was the first time I noticed this happening. But
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maybe because I am much more involved with (real) free software
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movements now, I have the strong impression that this "confusion" is
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starting to grow out of control. So here I am, trying to convince some
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people to be a little more coherent.
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When you create a group to talk about free software, or when you join a
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group whose goal is to promote free software ideas, you should really
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**do that**. First of all, you should understand [what free software is
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about](http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html). It is **not about**
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open source, for starters. It is also a political movement, not only a
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technical one.
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I was part of a group in my former university which had "Free Software"
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in its name. For a long time, I believed the group really was about free
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software, even after receiving e-mails with heavy negative critics about
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my opinions when I defended something related to the free software
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ideology (e.g., when I suggested that we should not have a Facebook
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page, which had been created for the group by one of its members). Well,
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when I really could not hide the truth from myself anymore, I packed my
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things and left the group (this was actually the start of a new free
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software group that I founded with other friends in Brazil).
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I also like a lot to go to events. And not only because of the
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presentations, but mostly because I really like to talk to people.
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Brazilians are fortunately very warm and talkative, so events here are
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really a fertile soil for my social skills :-). However, even when the
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event has "free software" in its name and description, it is **very**
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hard to find someone who really understands the philosophy behind the
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term. And I'm not just talking about the attendees: the event staff is
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also usually ignorant (and prefer to remain like this)! I feel really
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depressed when I start to defend the (real) free software, and people
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start looking at me and saying "You're radical.". It's like going in a
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"Debugger Conference" and feel ridicularized when you start talking
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about GDB! I cannot understand this...
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But the worst part of all this is that newcomers are learning that "free
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software" is "Linux", or something which is **not** free software. This
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is definitely not a good thing, because people should be aware that the
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world is not just about software development: there are serious issues,
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including privacy and freedom menaces by Facebook/Google/Apple/etc,
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which we should fight against. Free software is about that as well.
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Awareness should be raised, actions should be taken, and people should
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refuse those impositions.
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So, to finish what I want to say, if you do not consider yourself a free
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software activist, please consider becoming one. And if, after giving it
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a thought, you decided that you really do not want to be a free software
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activist, then **do not use the name "free software" in your
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event/group/whatever**, unless you really intend to talk about it and
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not open source.. In other words, if you don't want to help, please
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don't spread confusion.
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