Stallman vs. Reality

The trouble with Richard Stallman's arguments they are based on ideals without accounting for the reality of how people need or even want to use software and information. Stallman has been at the same tired old argument of what he views to be freedom in regards to software for decades and still doesn't seem to understand that his ideals for free software do a lot to restrict the freedoms of users and developers.

The reason why Windows, OS X, and proprietary software titles are so popular because they enable most people to do the things they want to do. That's the end of the debate really, and that is why Stallman frequently finds himself tilting at windmills. Most people don't and wouldn't benefit from the kind of freedom he is defending.

Most people would be at a severe disadvantage if they migrated to a completely free operating system and completely free software for that system. They wouldn't be able to do much of what they want to do without learning to develop software themselves. At the very least they would be facing a substantial learning curve in using their computer in a different way then they are accustomed to.

This kind of freedom is Stallman preaches is meaningless when it's freedom people either don't need or are unlikely to take advantage of. Sure, to a hacker or developer that wants the right to alter and redistribute any part of a system they see fit it is great, but how many people really fall into that category?

The truth is that many developers don't even take advantage of that kind of freedom. Most people wont ever need or want access to alter almost all of an operating system or program. Most people just want it to work. How many computer users actually want or need the abiltiy to hack the entire system?

Stallman's complete freedom argument is  almost completely pointless when faced with the reality of people users that don't need or benefit from it.  People have had years and years to migrate to completely free GNU/Linux systems and overwhelmingly, they choose Winows, OS X, Android, Ubuntu, etc...

Stallman is an extremist defending principles which for most users are completely useless. They don't need to hack their systems and they don't want to and they shouldn't have to.  There is nothing wrong if people want to buy software and let professionals handle the details when need be. There is nothing wrong with free software and people that want to do it themselves either, but expecting all software to fall in the latter category is silly. Especially since all users don't.