The matrix

I have got to the bottom of the open source software crowd … I found this:

“…most people, in advanced countries, now own computers (sometimes called “phones”) and connect to the Internet with them. Nonfree software still makes the users surrender control over their computing to someone else, but now there is another way to lose it: Service as a Software Substitute, or SaaSS, which means letting someone else’s server do your own computing activities.

Both nonfree software and SaaSS can spy on the user, shackle the user, and even attack the user. Abuses are common in services and proprietary software products because the users are not in charge. That’s the fundamental difference: nonfree software and SaaSS are controlled by some other entity (typically a corporation or a state), and the users have no say. Free software, by contrast, puts the users in control.

Why does this control matter? Because freedom means having control over your own life. If you use a program to carry out activities in your life, your freedom depends on your having control over the program. You deserve to have control over the programs you use, and all the more so when you use them for something important in your life.”

Boys, I know someone who thinks that freedom is freedom from ever using a device with a LCD screen. If you never use software then it’s harder for the big bad corporations and governments to control you. Get out of the Matrix!