Free Software <> Proprietary Software.

A few months ago I had to do a presentation for school. When I chose the topic "Free Software", I knew that it would not be that difficult for me.

But then, at the end of the presentation, something strange happened.

A teacher, known as regular Apple purchaser, said that proprietary software was not worse that Free Software, because you have the possibility to disassemble the software product. I was extremely surprised by this statement and so amazed that I did not have the ability to explain something about the philosophy of Free Software. It felt like a slap in the face.

Even when you have the right to disassemble software (for example, this is the case in Germany), a proprietary software license differs extremely from the philosophy of Free Software.

  1. The vendor of Free Software wants to give all humans the freedom, to use, distribute, change and distribute your version of the software.
  2. The vendor of Free Software enriches the knowledge of the world.
  3. The vendor of Free Software shares his ideas.
  4. The vendor of Free Software provides Free Software because he wants to help you.
  5. The vendor of Free Software has no dirty secrets to hide from you.

But:

  1. The vendor of proprietary software wants you to buy his software and prohibits you (maybe) from distributing it.
  2. The vendor of proprietary software does not enrich the knowledge of the world.
  3. The vendor of proprietary software does not share his ideas.
  4. The vendor of proprietary software sells it because he wants to make money.
  5. The vendor of proprietary software hides security gaps and backdoors from you.

As you can see, there is a big difference between proprietary software and Free Software. And even if you can disassemble the program, you will still be oppressed by the manufacter. Also, a disassembler generates crabbed assembly rather than readable code. Free Software is always distributed in a readable programming language.