Richard Stallman — "Using a proprietary program is like being a prisoner in a cage, and the bars are…"
Using a proprietary program is like being a prisoner in a cage, and the bars are made of code.
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More from Richard Stallman
"The term 'intellectual property' is designed to confuse people."
"Education should be about freedom, not proprietary software."
"It's stupidity. It's worse than stupidity: it's a marketing hype campaign. … Somebody is saying this is inevitable – and whenever you hear somebody saying that, it's very likely to be a set of busines…"
"As a matter of principle, I refuse to own a tie. I find ties uncomfortable, so I don't wear them."
"Android is a major step towards an ethical, user-controlled, free-software portable phone, but there is a long way to go."
About Richard Stallman (born 1953)
American programmer who founded the Free Software Foundation and the GNU Project, whose copyleft GPL licensing made the modern Linux ecosystem possible. Closely associated with Linus Torvalds (Linux kernel creator who builds on GNU userland) and Eric S. Raymond (open-source advocate (The Cathedral and the Bazaar)). For an intellectual contrast, see Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder — Gates's 1976 Open Letter to Hobbyists arguing for software-as-property is the foundational document Stallman's GPL was specifically written to refute — the two opposing answers to 'who owns the code'.