Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
All the four freedoms need to be usable for something to be useful. If you can't upload a new copy, then being able to modify it is pointless I think.
Then what did RMS use to write emacs and gcc?
It is called a `needed evil'. When RMS wrote emacs and GCC, NO free software operating system existed. It was impossible to _not_ use non-free software. Today it is possible to use 100% software. So there is no reason to use non-free software at all.
It has been repeated often enough here that in many lines of business it is NOT possible to transfer instantly to use 100% free software and that it is not even a neccessary evil, but a noble good, to aid the transition by means of compatability tools AS WELL AS WRITING NEW SOFTWARE.
Just because he now has free versions of his tools doesn't mean other users yet have free versions of their tools; or tool-sets.
They have the tools to write free versions.
Go and make a warp drive then. "You" "have" "the tools". It takes time, and some of the tools are not yet written, and have to be made with tools that are written. Some of the money is not there but will start to appear as more people start to demand it. Demand is incremental as benefits are gained.
You are resorting to straw man arguments.
No, actually, I wasn't. (And I don't suffer from "strawman argument calling" fear either.) I'm saying that just because RMS has solved HIS problems, doesn't mean everyone else has YET.
You can say on his behalf "Damn you lot, I'm off" if you like, which is what it sounds like.
Sam