Richard Stallman interview

These are some questions to ask Richard Stallman.


 * 1) What are the threats to a user's freedom that come from running software or storing data on someone else's computer?
 * 2) Is there any situation in which a user could run software or store data on someone else's computer and still have their freedom preserved?
 * 3) In some applications, like communications (e.g. email, social networking) or collaboration (e.g. wikis, version control) you really depend on services from someone else's computer. How can we preserve our freedom and still get the societal and technological benefits of these kinds of applications?
 * 4) Using network services is also a matter of convenience. Should we, the Free Software community, be careful not to overlook the needs and values of "normal" users when considering the value of network services?
 * 5) Many Free Software users exchange control over their computing environment for convenience. For example, many people use pre-compiled binary packages of Free Software from trusted sources (such as apt repositories) rather than building them from source. Is there a potential analog to this in using network services?
 * 6) Is there a danger of seeing the world move to using network services for most of its computing without a Free Software presence? Is "don't do that" a realistic answer to that danger?
 * 7) When Xerox refused to share printer software, you founded the free software movement rather than advocating not using printers (though maybe if you had spent the last nearly three decades leading a movement against printing that would have been a better thing for the environment). Today web applications and other network services are more fundamental to most user's computing environments than printers were in the 1980s. What would a young rms do today, in response to the refusal of those who run web applications and other network services younger version of you and his community would rely on?
 * 8) You don't use the Web through a Web browser; instead, you use an email gateway to fetch Web pages you're interested in. Do you think that this colors your perspective on the usefulness of Web applications?
 * 9) Are you familiar with the Franklin Street Statement? Do you think we're going down the right path?
 * 10) As you've noted many times, the free software movement and open source movement have very different philosophies, despite accepting almost exactly the same licenses for software. Has the lack of a practical difference made it more difficult for users to see the importance of a movement that puts freedom at the forefront? Unlike software that runs on your own computer, with network services there is a big practical difference between services that a merely quote-open-unquote as in quote-Web 2.0-unquote and services that are free as in freedom. Are network services an opportunity for the free software movement to both clearly demarcate the practical differences between it and movements that do not talk about freedom and to clearly take the leadership role in defining the key issues around user control of their computing now and in the future?