I think this is pretty great analysis, really. Sobering, so to say. I know all of this, but tend to ignore quite often. This is because (unlike Stallman) I don'

I think this is pretty great analysis, really. Sobering, so to say. I know all of this, but tend to ignore quite often. This is because (unlike Stallman) I don't think I'm fighting a war, I'm just living the way I think is "right". But is it really not my war? In the and, I do believe it would be a better world if some goals of Stallman have been achieved. However, this analysis has the same flaws it points out in the movement of stallmanism: pointing out the problem is not the same as proposing a solution. Take this Gmail example. I absolutely hate it and would love it to disappear, but expressing it the usual way — as pointed out — is useless, if not harmful. Why people use Gmail or Google Docs? Because it's handy, obviously. They need something that does something like these services do, and google products simply happen to be better than alternatives. And they seem free too. So what should I do instead of demonstratively avoiding them? Propose something better not only for myself, but for other people too. Give them a better option. Obviously. But the truth is I can't do that. I do not have any "smart solution" and Gmail is "free" not because it costs nothing to operate it, but because Google has shitload of money. And the same is true for nearly every popular service and non-trivial piece of software. We may bring up Linux and Blender all we want, but the sad truth is free software just sucks. There is no open-source alternative for AutoCAD or Native Instruments, because it requires way too much domain-knowledge for your typical Finnish CS student to make one. Making this stuff is expensive as in "money". And "making money" a.k.a "business" is dirty game, so you don't make it easy for your competition to copy stuff you wasted your money to make. Blender is an exception that does not prove the rule. Fighting for FOSS is basically fighting for communism. People outside of USA tend to agree this is nice idea, but we still haven't seen working implementations of that. So, if I don't have a better war strategy, how can I complain? Do I think it would be better if Stallman was not fighting this silly war of his own? I guess I don't. Even if "normal people" tend to make fun of him, at least they know about him and this FOSS stuff. Well, at least some of them do.