---
title: free software
subtitle: Software that respects your freedoms.
date: 2021-04-20
template: page.html
---

In a world of user-hostile, privacy invasive software built by
corporations that definitely do not have your best interests in mind,
free software is the light at the end of the tunnel.

There's a lot to be said about software freedom, but in essence, it puts
the user in control. You have the freedom to run, copy, distribute,
study, change and improve the software as you wish.

On the other hand, "open source" is less restrictive free software. Open
source licenses tend to be more lenient; some even permitting nonfree
conditions. As always, an excellent essay by RMS: [Why Open Source
misses the point of Free
Software](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html)

People who claim that the distinction doesn't matter are either

1. a corporate shill
2. someone who engages with "open source" on a superficial level;
   doesn't care about ideology of free software (probably also uses
   Discord)

Luke Smith has a pretty decent video on people who fall under 2:
https://videos.lukesmith.xyz/videos/watch/230c8314-ab89-4c47-ac7c-ea8b2e896cff

These "grifters" that he talks about are pretty dangerous to software
freedom. They don't care about nonfree software, or their privacy. They
might have a superficial understanding of what free software means, but
that's about it. And they're extremely loud about:

- the need for a Code of Conduct
- language used
- meritocracy (also read: "you can't be smarter than me!")

They usually always bring up the strawman that "you can't escape nonfree
software", or that "your computer runs nonfree code".

These people are a threat to free software. I am documenting this here
in hopes that this situation changes in the future, and I can delete
this section altogether.