3 ms·

I wouldn't say that the FSF's criteria are unprincipled. At his pre-Libreplanet talk on 2023-03-17, RMS gave a principled and pragmatic explanation of the crit

I wouldn't say that the FSF's criteria are unprincipled. At his pre-Libreplanet talk on 2023-03-17, RMS gave a principled and pragmatic explanation of the criteria. I don't agree with him on his application of some of the principles or on where the appropriate places to make compromises between principles and pragmatism are; but that doesn't mean his conclusions are unprincipled.

mindslight 3y ago
I'm watching the video (I haven't had my dose of RMS in a while), but I haven't heard anything new so far. The bit I'd call unprincipled is giving a pass to software that is baked into hardware, and hardware modification in general. This is pure pragmatism from the world of the 90's, regardless of the stated justification. This crutch allows RMS to avoid having to work out an approach to analyzing systems which are combinations of libre, non-libre, and someone else's domains. And due to the rise of everpresent network connectivity, analyzing these combined systems to figure out how libre software can be used to create the most user freedom is more important than ever. In RMS's terms, such systems just seem to be considered "unethical; avoid" and his thinking stops. This isn't particularly productive when overwhelming commercial interests herd users into those types of systems, network effects keep them there, and many are part of real businesses that can't just be forked.