After Nokia purchsed Trolltech last year, doubts arose about how Nokia would handle the dual licensing model of Qt, the advanced cross-platform toolkit which lies at the base of the KDE Free software desktop. As it turns out, these doubts were unfounded, as Nokia today announced it's going to add the LGPL to Qt's licensing model, starting with Qt 4.5.
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Member since:2005-08-18
Member since:2005-10-10
Member since:2006-01-03
Well, that is not what I have heard Richard Stallman say in a spoken interview in what I believe was LUG Radio.
I did not hear him say that non-free software should be outlawed, but he went much farther than saying that it *should* be free. He not only insisted on non-free software being unethical, but also said that if you cannot find a way to make money out of open software, well, too bad, that does not legitimize at all the act of writing proprietary software.
"He never said ... that I'm aware of" does not really sound like an axiom of truth. And "probably wouldn't disagree with any of that" seems to be a statement that really does misrepresent his ideas.
edit: BTW, I do understand the difference between free as in "libre" and free as in "gratis" just fine.
Edited 2009-01-14 14:20 UTC
Member since:2007-04-06
Member since:2006-01-03
How generous of him. What if that business model does not suit you? Do you really think that writing a game and charging for it is unethical unless it is a MMORG with a monthly fee? How much are you paying for support for OpenOffice.org?
Let's be real here. Free software is insanely great, and writing and supporting it is more than commendable. I agree that allowing proprietary software into the free software infrastructure (e.g. binary drivers) is very, very bad, because it will hinder the possibility of a free working system. We cannot aspire to all software being free, though, and it is also an act of freedom deciding whether you want to give away the product of your work for free, or you want (or, perish the thought, need) cold hard cash.
Member since:
2005-07-06
Stallman never claimed that software "has to be free". He has never made any statement (that I'm aware of) to the effect that non-free software should somehow be outlawed or illegal. All he has said is that, for the general good, software *should* be free. And that people on the whole would be better off if the software they used was free. Also he says that he personally does not want to use any software that he doesn't consider free, and that he will personally work to make as much software as possible available under a license he agrees with. This is all very different stating that software "has to" be free.
Stallman probably wouldn't disagree with any of that.
I disagree with much of what Stallman says, but I don't think anybody wins by mis-representing his ideas.