Subject: Free Software essay

From: "Nadav Har'El" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2001 01:13:36 +0300

I have written an essay (or "manifesto", if you want) about free software,
which you can find in

	http://nadav.harel.org.il/essays/lfe.html

In this essay I outline what I consider to be the benefits of free software
to our society (the essay doesn't focus on the Israeli society, by the way),
and why I consider freedom (implied in the name "free software") to be only
part of the whole story. Whenever possible I tried to include links to sites
demonstrating the points I was trying to make.

Here is the abstract from the essay:
    "Free software means a lot of different things for different people.
     For some people it means they can get quality software while paying
     next to nothing. For other people, it means the freedom to understand
     what the software they use does exactly, and even modify it to their
     specific needs. Some people view free software as a way to escape the
     tyranny (as they see it) of the commercial software giants. In this
     essay I want to lay out the benefits of free software to our society,
     as I see them. I take the slogan of the French Revolution, "Liberté,
    Égalité, Fraternité", and show how each of these ideals (and not just
     the often-mentioned Liberty) is an important part of the free software
     movement."

Some of the ideas I lay out have already been mentioned by other free-software
activists (most notably Richard M. Stallman) in their writings, but I believe
that the central theme of my essay, the "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité" slogan,
was never expanded on to such detail (except an obscure lecture that Stallman
gave in French 3 years ago, in which he only touched the issue.).

As it stands some of what I write is philosophical - so far free software has
had a very tiny impact on Israeli society. I am hoping this could change,
and that free software could help, even if only a little, to make our country
a place with more freedom, more equality, and more fraternity ("ach'va").
Who knows - maybe someone else, after reading my essay, will actually decide
to do something about it - organizing social movements is not one of my
strongest sides ;)

Enjoy.

	Nadav.

-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |       Friday, Jun  1 2001, 10 Sivan 5761
[email-masked]             |-----------------------------------------
Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |Support bacteria - they're the only
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |culture some people have!