« This is a response to A balance of freedoms. "Value your freedom, or you will lose it, teaches history. "Don't bother us with politics," respond those who don't want to learn." - RMS ... » (Submitted by aboutblank on fsdaily.com - Free Software News)

Rick, you miss one point: free software is about freedom, not price. Hackers insist on freedom even when it is inconvenient...

My mission today is to teach you to value these freedoms... Please, try to learn this philosophy. Free Software is a movement that one day you will rejoin ;)

Freedom is worth a sacrifice - (RMS)

christophe

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

Freedom walk is a project aimed at spreading the message of 'Freedom in Society', 'Freedom from Environmental Issues', and 'Freedom in Software' and to promote activism around these freedoms.

What is this freedom that we are talking about?

It is the freedom to live our lives to its fullest without harming anybody else and without violating any of our accepted social norms. There are several areas of life where we invoke this freedom. We are primarily concerned with three different areas - Software Freedom, Freedom from Social Evils, Freedom to live our future.

"Software licenses and patents aren't the only ways proprietary software vendors can restrict the freedoms of computer users. A key component of our overall campaign for software freedom is making sure that the hardware we buy is not an obstacle to the exercise of our freedoms.

"Yesterday, Portugal celebrated the so called Carnation Revolution. Since then, this day has often been called the “Freedom day”, because during the revolution, the Portuguese regime went from an authoritarian dictatorship to a democracy. Thirty four years have passed since Portuguese fought for their freedom, as in many other societies freedom is now taken for granted.

"This is a post about freedom. The freedom to keep your data for yourself and the freedom to run free software. You should be able to reclaim and enjoy these freedoms also when using web applications. [...] Let me be clear: web apps are great and I’m in love with them. But I think it’s time to ask for more freedom and more privacy. Here is a three step plan to achieve both these results..."

"When we speak of Free Software (FS), we are speaking about the freedom it gives users, as all supporters of the FS movement understand (or, at least, are expected to know). And freedom of software cannot exist in isolation. It depends on other freedoms, such as freedom of speech..."

When explaining why Free Software is important, one question that often comes up is: “do I really need the software freedom?”