The Notion of Free Software for Beginners

About more than a year ago, I needed to write an argumentative & academic research paper for my course. There was no subject restriction, so I chose to contrast free software with proprietary software. Now, this was a bit problem for me because my professor doesn’t have any interest in computers at all. I agree that this subject was too specific for such assignment. The expected topics were quite generic: “Social media: Bad or good?” , “Veganism: Yes or no?”, “Vaccines: Safe or not?” (Don’t panic! They always defend that it is safe) and so on. Due to this expectation, I went the safe way and organized the paper so that a person with no tech related knowledge on the field could understand it easily.

For those tech guys reading this, you may find several instances of non-valid assertions in this article (especially the explicit instances given), and you are right. Please don’t be too harsh on me (especially Apple users). I’m trying to prove a point to a non-tech user, you may as well take it for the sake of example.

This article (or whatever you call it) is centered around Stallman’s strict ideas. So if you don’t like him, you may not really like this article. I also admit, although I say that the article is based on his ideas, it is really based on my interpretation of his ideas, so you may find that in some cases I shrink or extend his ideas a bit. Today, I may not strictly advocate some of the concepts given in the text. So I admit it has some flaws, but I’m sure the message will be given and the notion will be fully understood.

If you find the article too exhaustive, you may instead watch this video where Stallman describes free software. The article more or the less explains the same things with explicit examples. (I recommend watching it anyway because he slams Microsoft real good):

The original title for this article was “An Overlooked Part of Human Freedom: Freedom of Software”
I think it is too keen now, isn’t it?

The development in computer technology started to accelerate in the 1950s, when World War II proved that computers had immense effects, specifically on mass production and communication. For example, enigma machine, which was used to convey encrypted military messages by Nazi Germany, provided substantial amounts of information to be transmitted between the Axis powers before it was deciphered by English computer scientist, mathematician and cryptanalyst Alan Turing (Hodges, 1995).

Although it was possible to decipher such machines, it was a process of enormous human effort and waste of time, and more advanced machines such as Lorenz cipher took place of Enigma, impelling computer scientists to research more advanced ways of automating computers to use them for decoding purposes. This eventually led to the production of world’s first programmable, electronic and digital computer (Hern, 2014). Since then, computers have become programmable devices, meaning that they perform tasks in a systematic and hierarchical way, according to the specific variables and commands defined.

Programming languages are the means of defining variables and commands. A computer program is a list of instructions defined by a programming language to perform specific tasks such as addition and subtraction (Ferguson, 2004). Emergence of programmable computers brought a new field in computer science: software engineering. A software engineer is a person who develops programs using programming languages to facilitate daily life.

From 1970s, this field started to gain more prominence and started to transform into a commercial business; famous computer and software companies such as Microsoft and Apple were founded in 1975 and 1976 respectively. At the time, the competition was enormous in the market, as a result, companies started to seek the philosopher’s stone in software development. This brought the reserved mentality of programmers which blocked the distribution of source code (instructions written using a programming language in a text format to execute a program) of programs for fear that other companies would use their technologies to excel theirs. There were also a minority of people who released themselves from their companies for the cause of software development.

In 1983, Richard Stallman founded the free software (FS) movement by launching the GNU Project¹ (Stallman, 1983). The FS movement is a social movement which maintains the idea that software should be free for the better development of technologies, well-being of society, ease of usability and reliability. Advocates of proprietary software (PS) assert that software should be regarded as a product, each product should be sold for only one person, and the user of the software should be aware of the possible restrictions that may be enforced by the software company regarding use, distribution and modification of the program. Some of the well-known PS includes Microsoft Windows, Adobe Photoshop and Skype. On the contrary, FS philosophy encourages complete freedom. Linux², WordPress, Mozilla Firefox and Moodle are examples of FS.

When people think of PS, it is often thought that they only compose commercial high-end programs, but a proprietary program may be free regarding price. To ensure the distinction between PS and FS, Stallman proposed four essential freedoms that make a program FS: *users should be able to run the program with their free will for any purpose with no restrictions (freedom 0), users should be able to study how the program works and they should be able to make modifications as they wish (freedom 1), users should be able to redistribute the program (freedom 2), users should be able to redistribute personally modified version of the program (freedom 3)³ (Stallman, 2018). These four freedoms define FS, and implicitly they necessitate it to be free of charge and open source (source code which is publicly available to redistribute and modify) because a program without source code is almost impossible to modify, and an open source program can’t have any price due to its definition. There are several aspects which make advocating FS movement more reasonable.

First and most significant one is the freedom it provides to its users. In daily life, people want to be free. Even the slightest limitation on his or her freedom makes a person feel uncomfortable, and people always prefer to choose things that grant freedom: their government, living space, neighbors, friends and even pets. Being free is certainly one of the most leading feeling in our lives; it is one of the things that makes humans human. Although there is an enormous effort put by people to gain absolute freedom, there are always some restrictions on our life; we are not completely free. Some examples include men’s compulsory military service, paying taxes for services which we don’t use or benefit from, and not being able to travel across countries without lengthy processes of acquiring visas and passports.

Although some cases vary from country to country, the lack of freedom in using software is international. Software is everywhere in people’s lives, and it has become an inseparable part of human life. Humans use software, because it facilitates life, but the main problem is that we conform with the programs. We do not use programs how we want, but instead we use them how they want. PS companies do not give us the freedom to interact with programs, they restrict our use of them by indicating the purposes of the use of them in their licenses.

For example, Windows users constantly complain about the forced updates the operating system (OS) enforces. Users turn on their computer to check their emails or complete their important work, but they are obliged to wait for ten minutes for the OS to finish its update. They don’t have the permission to skip it and there is no option to disable updates. Furthermore, by downloading updates in the background, this process sometimes slows down internet connection while user is actively using the computer. Additionally, if a user is not satisfied with the update, he or she can’t revert it even if it causes critical system errors or the user doesn’t want to use new version for any reason.

In this case, the user has no authority on the program; in fact, the program is ruling the user by enforcing the updates. In case of FS, OSs do not enforce anything; if there is an update available, the system asks the user if he or she wants to update his system. When users are enforced by such restrictions, they resort to third party software. For example, when Microsoft removed the feature of start menu to introduce a new design called ‘Metro UI’ in Windows 8, many users complained about the absence of start menu, and instead of using the new design, many users downloaded third party software which brought back the old start menu. Ironically, the most used program was ‘Classic Shell’, which is FS (Whitney, 2012). As a result, Microsoft discontinued the idea of ‘Metro UI’ and reintroduced start menu with Windows 10.

In the end, users acquired what they wanted, but they wouldn’t have had to wait for three years for the release of the new OS if they had used a free OS as they would have had the right to choose which interface they wanted. Such examples show that the freedom of software use is substantial.

The second aspect which makes FS superior is the pricing policy. Some people think that purchasing computer software is a foolish idea; they assert that computer programs are not tangible entities, they cost too much and some of them even require lifetime payment. Even a person with this mentality pays substantial amounts of money for software. Acquisition of PS is not only done by the means of internet purchases. People buy software unconsciously, because it is everywhere, and we need it.

For instance, famous technology company Apple has been manufacturing one of the most popular smartphone series, which is ‘iPhone’. iPhone is so popular that, in the United States, top ten most sold smartphones of 2018 include nine iPhone models (Kielty, 2018). Although iPhone is one of the most expensive phone series on the market, and it performs worse than its counterparts in terms of battery life and overall hardware performance, it continues to be the most dominant smartphone on the market. The reason is that the company values the software of the smartphones; in fact, users may be paying money equivalent to or more than the cost of the smartphone itself for software. The majority of the non-iPhone smartphones use a free OS, Android, which has the same capabilities of iPhone’s OS, iOS.

In this case, people misinterpret the price of the product and purchase it thinking that they are buying a capable smartphone, but instead; they spend the majority of their money on an OS that they haven’t even heard the name of. This is not the only case, computers also have OSs; the price of a computer with Windows installed includes the cost of the OS. And more broadly, nearly every electronic device has programs installed in it, including microwaves, vacuum cleaners and refrigerators. Companies manufacturing these devices must employ software engineers to produce software for them.

If FS was more widespread, companies could have used existing FS and people wouldn’t have to pay for the extra costs of software production. By promoting PS, companies only create redundant human work, waste of time and futile expenses; and they compensate for expenses by charging customers more. Making software free of charge has many economic benefits for people and companies, but it also reduces competition by making the technology available for everyone to use, therefore; companies need to think about whether they want to earn more, or they want the goodness of society before promoting FS.

The third advantage that FS provides is the rapid development of technologies in computer science; therefore, development in technologies that utilize computers.

CERN is a European research organization, which is financed by European governments. It hosts the largest particle physics laboratory in the world, and since its foundation in 1954, major scientific achievements have been made, including the introduction of the Internet. Anything discovered in CERN is published as freely available information with the names of the participants who helped in the process of discovery (Plasencia, 2017).

This concept of sharing information serves a crucial role in the development of technologies, and that’s what FS movement demands. FS philosophers assert that information should be available freely for everyone to use; otherwise, people will have to discover technologies that are already in use, instead of improving them. For example, 3D printing technology, which is used to produce entire physical objects using hot plastic material was first introduced in the 1980s. 3D printing has become so popular that today, some people use 3D printers as a household item, but until recently, they were not even aware of the existence of the technology. One reason that made 3D printing prominent is an open source movement that started in 2005.

Initiated by Dr. Adrian Bowyer, ‘RepRap Project’ had the aim of manufacturing a 3D printer that could print its own parts to create a replica of itself. The firmware of the project was released freely under the GNU General Public License. With the emergence of RepRap printers, another open source project emerged in 2011, “Marlin”. As a result of these movements and contributions, 3D printing technology gained substantial pace in its development, and many of the advanced 3D printers in use today are available because of these movements (Flynt, 2017).

With the growing popularity of 3D printers, today, biologists and computer scientists are attempting to produce human organs using 3D printers, and if they succeed, FS will not only contribute to computer science, but also the other professions.

On the contrary, PS companies do not follow the idea of free distribution of technologies. In fact, they patent their software technologies, and they prohibit other companies from using their technologies to become a monopoly. However, programming is not like an art or an idea, one can argue that his or her ideals should be used with his or her permission because he or she has the ownership of it. But programmers must use existing patterns to develop useful and effective software. In this case, programmers are restricted in such a way that ultimately, it won’t be possible for them to produce beneficial products.

In an analogical way, a poet is not allowed to use a metaphor in his or her text because that figure of speech was already patented by another poet.

Additionally, some PS companies may not even sell their products to some customers even if they want to buy. For example, Microsoft won’t sell any of their products to people living in Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria because of the government jurisdiction (“Exporting Microsoft Products FAQ”, 2018). And this is a great discrimination against people living in these countries because companies as such use their economic power to become a monopoly. As a result, people living in discriminated countries have to use other alternatives of the programs. And this causes conflicts, for example, if a Syrian businessperson wants to attend an online conference with managers living in foreign countries, he or she will probably have to use Skype, which is a Microsoft product, because it is the most popular program for the conferencing purposes worldwide.

This kind of problem can be solved by using FS, but it may take time for people to get used to a new program and because of the discomfort, other users may choose to expel Syrian people instead. Additionally, some of the popular programs do not have alternatives, and people have to use them to perform their job. For example, Adobe is a US company which is concentrated on graphic design programs such as Photoshop. It is almost impossible for a person who has no access to Photoshop to become a graphic designer. Some people have no hostility for these people, but they have to comply with the discriminations because they need to use products; if they don’t, they will have to stop using them because of the license agreements. These instances show that monopoly markets in software have detrimental effects.

A typical user being hunted. Copyright 2014 Christian Noguera, Valentin Pasquier, Richard Stallman

The fourth aspect of FS concerns safety.

When programmers produce programs, they may make some design flaws, leading to the emergence of software bugs, which make programs behave in unintended or incorrect ways. When these kinds of bugs occur, they cause inconvenience for users, and if the bug is a major one, it may even damage the computer hardware. Software bugs can be exploited by crackers⁴, who are specialized in computers to obtain information or make a profit by exploiting weaknesses of computer systems. Acts of crackers may cause detrimental consequences. For example, they may exploit banking systems, and transfer money into their accounts illegally. They may also disable security cameras or alarm systems to help a heist. When these possibilities are considered, it can be concluded that it is vital for programmers to check their programs constantly for any potential errors.

But programmers of PS are not always available to check their code because they usually don’t work on weekends and holidays. For example, if a major software bug emerges on a Friday night, users of the software may have to wait for two days for programmers to fix the problem. In these two days, users of the software may not carry out their work properly, and they may even suffer financial loss. Furthermore, small companies of PS may take weeks or even months to fix the problem because of the limited work force. In FS, a community is responsible for programs, and it is difficult to implement a bug into a program, as source code is always available and checked. Even a programmer mistakenly inserts a faulty code into a program, it can be detected and fixed immediately by other programmers. As FS programmers do not consider what they are doing as a job, there are always people available to fix an error anytime.

PS programmers can also insert malicious code into their programs to use it for their benefit, or they may not fix present unknown bugs to exploit them. Because proprietary programs are developed by relatively small groups of programmers, these malicious implementations may not be noticed by other programmers. Apart from individual interests of programmers, companies may also decide to insert malicious code into their programs as a marketing strategy.

For example, Apple acknowledged that their software updates slow down older smartphones. Although the company asserts that these updates are intended to protect the phone, most people interpret this as a strategy of impelling users to buy newer versions of Apple smartphones (Kottasová, 2017). The act of deliberate insertion of malicious code in FS is not possible because of the open source principle.

The fifth aspect is related to information. It was mentioned that a PS product may be free regarding price. It was also mentioned that PS programmers’ primary purpose is earning money. This means that there must be a mechanism that allows PS developers to earn money while distributing program free of charge.

In 2010, Lewis explained this mechanism by saying “If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.”.

Information and big data are precious elements of the 21st century because they help companies find ways of manipulating society. By working on data sets, companies are able to identify their target audience. After identifying their audience, companies develop new marketing strategies accordingly. The simplest form of this mechanism can be encountered in daily life. For example, if a mother checks for some baby diapers on the internet, it will be noticed by the shopping website that the user has a baby, and using this information, the website may recommend the user baby clothes in the future.

Although this seems as a harmless action, there are many websites that save and utilize more complicated information. In today’s world, social media is responsible for big data. In general, people use social media for sharing their life with their friends and family, but they also share their life with companies. And by doing so, social media users give good clues for programmers to use the data to reach bigger audiences and keep their present users.

For example, Pinterest introduced a design referred as “bottomless bowl” in which users scroll down endlessly on their smartphones, and new content is always available. After studying some data, it was found out by the behavioral psychologists that this design impels users to see newly available content. Today, many of the social media websites use this design to keep their users on their smartphones.

Zynga, which is a game company, used their data to analyze users’ behavior to find out when users are more inclined to spend money on their games. According to the data, they adjusted the interface and mechanisms of the game to make users spend more money (Edwards, 2018).

If people were offered to choose, they would certainly reject the idea of collection of their information. Many people know that they are manipulated and their information is obtained, but they are so addicted to the products that they can’t quit using them. This proves that some programs rule people, but not the free ones.

FS products regard users’ privacy. A free program may collect information for developmental purposes, but users can always choose not to contribute. It was mentioned that people purchase programs unconsciously, in the earlier case, people lose their money, but in this case, people lose their privacy. In the fourth aspect, it was mentioned that FS provides safety, and this can be further supported in relation to privacy.

Companies have access to some sensitive data, these include users’ photographs, credit card information, ID information, home addresses and conversations with other people. When a software company fails to protect their collected information from crackers, it may cause great discomfort in society; in fact, it may even cause serious ethical issues.

In 2015, crackers stole all the customer data of Ashley Madison, which is an extramarital affair website, and demanded that the website shut down. One of their justifications for the act was that the website charged $19 for users to completely delete their accounts including their sensitive information. By adopting this policy, the company was able to net $1.7 million in revenue in 2014. Stolen data included emails, names, home addresses and credit card information.

Eventually, the website wasn’t shut down and all the data were published publicly. After the incident, it was found out that the information of the users who deleted their accounts by paying was never deleted. As a result, some people attempted to blackmail their acquaintances who were registered on the website, and two customers of the website were reported to commit suicide in Canada (Baraniuk, Chideya, Thomsen & Cluley, 2015).

Similarly, in 2014, Apple’s cloud storage service iCloud was cracked, leading to distribution of celebrities’ photos containing nudity (Arthur, 2014).

It can be concluded that by using PS, people are making themselves vulnerable to cracking incidents. It should also be considered that the entire blame is not on PS companies, as FS products may also be cracked. The emphasis is that if FS becomes more available, it will be harder for crackers to conduct fraudulent actions because programmers won’t make same design mistakes, and they will develop new strategies to manage security problems using the available source code and information. It is not exactly known what programing errors caused iCloud and Ashley Madison incidents, except the developers working in these companies because other programmers don’t have the access to the code; and it can’t be guaranteed that same mistakes will not be repeated by other PS companies; this is directly related to the role of FS in rapid development of technologies.

In conclusion, it can be argued that there are five major benefits of promoting FS: it provides freedom by not interfering with users, it makes software production cheaper by reducing waste of resources, it encourages further development of technologies by encouraging sharing, it provides proper development of software by uniting programmers and provides privacy by letting users what to share.

Choosing FS or PS is an ethical question. While FS has many benefits for society, people tend to choose the continuation of PS because they have the motivation of acquiring more money, which uncovers the self-centered mind of humans. FS companies can earn adequate money, there are many jobs available which utilize FS programmers. And people can donate money to FS programmers, because they work for the goodness of society. Wikipedia is one example. If people stop considering life as a contest of earning money, FS will replace the place of PS, and it will certainly revolutionize our conception of computers and our life.

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