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Computers, I've loved them since
I've been able to afford to have my own,
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back in the beginning of the
modern home computer era - in the 1980s.
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And I've owned a large number
of different kinds of computers
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and I've expressed, publicly, loyalty
to this kind or that kind,
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but recently my mind has turned,
as many people's have,
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to this whole business of free software.
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If you have, I don't know,
plumbing in your house,
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it may be, that you
don't understand it.
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But you may have a friend
who does and they may suggest
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you move a pipe here, or
a stopcock there
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or a valve somewhere else
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and you're not breaking the law
by doing that, are you?
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Because it's your house
and you own the plumbing.
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You can't do that
with your computer.
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You can't actually really fiddle
with your operating system,
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And you certainly can't share any ideas
you have about your operating system
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with other people.
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Because Apple and Microsoft, who run the
two most popular operating systems,
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are very firm about the fact that they
own that.
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And no one else can have anything to do
with it.
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Now this may seem natural to you,
why shouldn't they?
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But actually,
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why can't you do with it what you like?
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And why can't the community, at large,
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alter, and improve, and share?
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That's how science works, after all.
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All knowledge is free and all knowledge
is shared in good science
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If it isn't, it's bad science and it's a
kind of tyranny
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And I'm here, as it were, simply to
remind you
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that GNU and Linux are the twin pillars
of the free software community
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People who believe -and this is the
important part-
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that software should be free, that
the using community should be allowed
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to adapt it and adopt it, to change it,
to improve it,
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to spread those improvements around
the community
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like science.
That's basically what it's saying
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In the same way that good scientists
share everything, and all knowledge is
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open and free, so it should be with
an operating system.
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[Trade-free means good practice]
