Algunas frases del artículo de Richard Stallman publicado por la BBC el 3 July 2008

"Prestar tanta atención a la jubilación de Bill Gates es confundir las cosas. Lo que realmente importa no es Gates, ni Microsoft, sino el sistema de restricciones poco éticas que Microsoft, como muchas otras empresas de software, impone sobre sus clientes."

"Muchos fuera del campo de la informática dan crédito a Microsoft por avances de los que tan solo se aprovechó, tales como fabricar ordenadores baratos y rápidos y entornos gráficos cómodos para el usuario.

"El Los Angeles Times informó que su fundación gasta de 5 a un 10% anual e invierte el resto, a veces en empresas que da a entender que causan degradación del medio ambiente y enfermedades en esos mismos paises."

"Microsoft persiste de froma reiterada en conductas anticompetitivas y ha sido condenada tres veces. George W. Bush, que dejó escapar a Microsoft por la segunda condena en los EEUU, fué invitado al cuartel general de la empresa para recaudar fondos para la campaña electoral del 2000."

"Muchos usuarios odian el "impuesto Microsoft", los contratos de uso que te hacen pagar por Windows en tu ordenador incluso si no lo vas a usar."

"Luego están las incompatibilidades gratuitas [e injustificadas] y los obstáculos a la interoperabilidad con otros programas. Es por esto que la Unión Europea requirió a Microsoft que publicase las especificaciones de su entorno."

"Este año Microsoft atiborró con seguidores los comités de estándares para conseguir aprobación de su inmanejable, impracticable y patentado "estándar abierto" para documentos. La UE está investigando esto."

"Los programas de Microsoft se distribuyen bajo licencias que mantienen a los usuarios divididos y desamparados. Los usuarios están divididos porque se les prohibe compartir copias con cualquiera. Los usuarios están desamparados porque no tienen el código fuente que los programadores pueden leer y cambiar."

"Microsoft nos quiere hacer creer que ayudar a tu vecino es el equivalente moral de abordar un barco."

"Lo mas importante que Microsoft ha hecho es promover este sistema social injusto."

"Gates está personalmente identificado con él debido a su infame carta abierta en la que reprochaba a los usuarios de microinformática el compartir copias de sus programas."

"Gates puede haberse ido pero los muros y los barrotes que ayudó a crear permanecen, por ahora."

"Microsoft, Apple, Adobe y los demás te ofrecen programas que les dán poder sobre tí. Un cambio de ejecutivos o de empresas no es importante. Lo que necesitamos cambiar es este sistema."

"De eso trata el movimiento por el software libre. "Libre" se refiere a Libertad: escribimos y publicamos programas que los usuarios son libres de compartir y modificar."

"Hacemos esto sistemáticamente, por la libertad; algunos de nosotros pagados, muchos de forma voluntaria. Ya tenemos sistemas operativos completamente libres, incluyendo a GNU/Linux."

"Nuestro propósito es producir una gama completa de programas libres útiles de forma que el usuario de ordenadores no esté tentado de ceder su libertad para conseguir programas."

"Gates puede haberse ido pero los muros y los barrotes de programas privativos que ayudó a crear están ahí, por ahora.
Desmantelarlos es decisión nuestra."
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Fuente: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7487060.stm

Artículo completo:

It's not the Gates, it's the bars
By Richard Stallman
Founder, Free Software Foundation

Bill Gates
To pay so much attention to Bill Gates' retirement is missing the point. What really matters is not Gates, nor Microsoft, but the unethical system of restrictions that Microsoft, like many other software companies, imposes on its customers.

That statement may surprise you, since most people interested in computers have strong feelings about Microsoft. Businessmen and their tame politicians admire its success in building an empire over so many computer users.

Many outside the computer field credit Microsoft for advances which it only took advantage of, such as making computers cheap and fast, and convenient graphical user interfaces.

Gates' philanthropy for health care for poor countries has won some people's good opinion. The LA Times reported that his foundation spends five to 10% of its money annually and invests the rest, sometimes in companies it suggests cause environmental degradation and illness in the same poor countries.

Many computerists specially hate Gates and Microsoft. They have plenty of reasons.

'Solicit funds'

Microsoft persistently engages in anti-competitive behaviour, and has been convicted three times. George W Bush, who let Microsoft off the hook for the second US conviction, was invited to Microsoft headquarters to solicit funds for the 2000 election.

Many users hate the "Microsoft tax", the retail contracts that make you pay for Windows on your computer even if you won't use it.

In some countries you can get a refund, but the effort required is daunting.

There's also the Digital Restrictions Management: software features designed to "stop" you from accessing your files freely. Increased restriction of users seems to be the main advance of Vista.

'Gratuitous incompatibilities'

Then there are the gratuitous incompatibilities and obstacles to interoperation with other software. This is why the EU required Microsoft to publish interface specifications.

Microsoft would have us believe that helping your neighbour is the moral equivalent of attacking a ship

This year Microsoft packed standards committees with its supporters to procure ISO approval of its unwieldy, unimplementable and patented "open standard" for documents. The EU is now investigating this.

These actions are intolerable, of course, but they are not isolated events. They are systematic symptoms of a deeper wrong which most people don't recognise: proprietary software.

Microsoft's software is distributed under licenses that keep users divided and helpless. The users are divided because they are forbidden to share copies with anyone else. The users are helpless because they don't have the source code that programmers can read and change.

If you're a programmer and you want to change the software, for yourself or for someone else, you can't.

If you're a business and you want to pay a programmer to make the software suit your needs better, you can't. If you copy it to share with your friend, which is simple good-neighbourliness, they call you a "pirate".

'Unjust system'

Microsoft would have us believe that helping your neighbour is the moral equivalent of attacking a ship.

The most important thing that Microsoft has done is to promote this unjust social system.

Gates is personally identified with it, due to his infamous open letter which rebuked microcomputer users for sharing copies of his software.

Gates may be gone, but the walls and bars of proprietary software he helped create remain, for now

It said, in effect, "If you don't let me keep you divided and helpless, I won't write the software and you won't have any. Surrender to me, or you're lost!"

'Change system'

But Gates didn't invent proprietary software, and thousands of other companies do the same thing. It's wrong, no matter who does it.

Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, and the rest, offer you software that gives them power over you. A change in executives or companies is not important. What we need to change is this system.

That's what the free software movement is all about. "Free" refers to freedom: we write and publish software that users are free to share and modify.

We do this systematically, for freedom's sake; some of us paid, many as volunteers. We already have complete free operating systems, including GNU/Linux.

Our aim is to deliver a complete range of useful free software, so that no computer user will be tempted to cede her freedom to get software.

In 1984, when I started the free software movement, I was hardly aware of Gates' letter. But I'd heard similar demands from others, and I had a response: "If your software would keep us divided and helpless, please don't write it. We are better off without it. We will find other ways to use our computers, and preserve our freedom."

In 1992, when the GNU operating system was completed by the kernel, Linux, you had to be a wizard to run it. Today GNU/Linux is user-friendly: in parts of Spain and India, it's standard in schools. Tens of millions use it, around the world. You can use it too.

Gates may be gone, but the walls and bars of proprietary software he helped create remain, for now.

Dismantling them is up to us.

Richard Stallman is the founder of the Free Software Foundation. You can copy and redistribute this article under the Creative Commons Attribution Noderivs 3.0 license.

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Fuente: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7487060.stm