FarSighted Speaks with Richard Stallman, Industry Pioneer, Visionary and Keynote Presenter at the Storage Developer Conference

Richard Stallman (or RMS, as he is often known) founded the free software movement in 1983, and began developing the free GNU operating system in 1984. He will present the keynote on September 11, 2007, at the upcoming Storage Developer Conference. During this address on "Free Software in Ethics, Practice and Licensing," RMS will speak about the ethical principles and history of the movement, and about the GNU General Public License, which is used by most free software packages.

FarSighted recently had the opportunity to speak with RMS about his work and philosophy.

FarSighted: In reviewing the GNU Philosophy, the section on "Selling Free Software" explains a seemingly misunderstood aspect of the Free Software movement.

RMS: Some people think free software means gratis software, when in fact it means software that respects the user's freedom. Part of this freedom is to make copies and then distribute them, and you can give them away or you can sell them.

So, some people have the inaccurate idea that we're against business, when in fact we're neither for nor against business. We're simply a movement for freedom for the users of software. We have nothing against business as long as it treats people ethically, which in this case means respecting the user's freedom.

FarSighted: So, you feel that freedom, regardless of price, is important?

RMS: If you don't share those values, I don't know any way to convince you. I think freedom is extremely important. I can't stand to be bullied or bossed around, and I want to be able to be free. I'm sure the fact that I grew up in the U.S. has something to do with that, because that's a deep part of the ideas underpinning the U.S., forgotten though they are these days.

FarSighted: What is the history of the movement?

RMS: 24 years ago, I announced a plan to develop a complete, free Operating System called GNU. Today, lots of people use that system, and most think it's Linux. Linux is actually one part of the system, it's the kernel - which is a major component, but it's not the bulk of it. Linux was the last essential component added, but the GNU project basically developed the system. So, it's the combo of GNU and Linux that you're using, and is more accurately called GNU+Linux or GNU/Linux.

FarSighted: In looking at the history, my understanding is that in your opinion Open Source is somewhat opposed to the concept of free software.

RMS: Yes and no. It's a way of talking about the same software more or less, but disregarding the ethical level of the issue. People who don't pay attention to freedom are likely to lose it. People keep offering to take away your freedom in exchange for something else you might appreciate. Such as… well, the latest thing was to protect you from terrorists. So, people who don't value their freedom will say yes to those offers.

And then they won't have their freedom anymore, and by and by they will lose other things as well. Once you lose your freedom it's hard to defend anything else. So, that's why I won't use the term Open Source. It's not enough to just develop a lot of free software and convince people to use it. If we want freedom to endure, we have to make people aware of freedom, and why it's important, so that they won't be willing to let it go.

FarSighted: How do you see free software impacting the storage industry?

RMS: That's not the kind of question I think about, because human rights are more important than what happens to any one industry. So I wouldn't generally consider that question the highest priority.

But there is a point I'd like to make regarding peripherals. Peripherals are getting more and more complicated, and often they contain computers - and these computers run some kind of software. 15 years ago, if there was a microprocessor in a peripheral, the software probably would have been in ROM. And when software is in a ROM, it might as well be a circuit, so the issues of free vs. non-free don't really arise.

Nowadays, the software is not in a ROM - it actually has to be downloaded before the peripheral can even run. When that is the case, the software has to be free. We will be informing the public which devices work with free software and which don't. If a device needs non-free firmware to be downloaded into a computer, then you have to have that non-free program in your machine in order to download it into your device… and since it's not in a ROM, you can't overlook it by saying it might as well be a circuit. It becomes a real issue.

And, therefore, I hope that manufacturers will either put firmware on ROM, or make it free software. In either of those cases, we can tell people this product works in the free world.

FarSighted: Are there any recent activities within your organization that you'd like to highlight?

RMS: On June 29, 2007, we released version 3 of the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL), the world's most popular free software license. The GNU GPL guarantees every user the freedom to run, study, adapt, improve and redistribute a program. These are the freedoms necessary so we can control our own computing and be good, helpful members of our communities. And together, they give us democratic control over what our software does. The adversaries of freedom don't stand still, and they've thought of new ways to separate users from their freedom since GPL version 2 came out. So, we have had to find ways to block them from doing this in order to make sure the GPL continues to achieve what has always been told. GPL version 3 will help our community in many ways, and I urge people to upgrade to it.

FarSighted: What would you like to see from the storage developer community, since that's who you'll be speaking to at the Storage Developer Conference?

RMS: Most of all, I want their products to not create any problems for our freedom. If they work with free software and they don't require any non-free software, then they're good. There's no problem. And then, I don't have to pay any attention to them, which as far as I'm concerned is the best possible outcome (because I'm overloaded with other problems to solve).

The positive thing we want from memory is to remember our bits - you all know that. The main thing from my point of view, is a negative thing that you should avoid. You don't need me to tell you that I'd like memory to be bigger and cheaper - everyone knows that. But this other problem [the need that software be free] is something that you might not have known about.

RMS was interviewed by FarSighted editor Kellye Crane, of Crane Communications.