Re: Questionnaire on motivation analysis of open source and open content

[Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>]

    http://www.osalt.com/
    "Find open source alternatives to well-known commercial software."

Although most open source programs are free software, there are
occasional exceptions.  I'd expect that all those programs are free,
but we can't be sure unless we check the licensing of each one.

However, the question that was asked was a different one:

    Has anyone come up with a comprehensive list of
    one-to-one functions of non-free services and free?

This is about services, not programs.

Our distinction between free and nonfree applies to _programs_.  If
you have a program, you can copy it and change it unless someone has
taken steps to prevent it.  So the question is, did someone do that?

A service is not a program, and the issues of free software don't even
arise for a service.  For instance, freedom to copy: I can't copy your
service by typing cp.  Freedom to modify: how could I possibly modify
your service?  Thus, the distinction of free vs proprietary does not
apply to services.  Services raise a different set of ethical issues.

In one kind of case, when it is a matter of doing your own computing,
any service is automatically bad.  (We call such services SaaS.)  To
have control over your own computing, you need to do it in your own
computer (with free software of course).  To do your computing using
someone else's service is to lose control over it.  See
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html.

Thus, the replacements we recommend for services which are SaaS
ought to be programs for people to run on their own servers.

    > Google Docs Survey -- LimeSurvey
    > Google Docs Document -- ietherpad-lite

I don't know what LimeSurvey and ietherpad-lite are.
Are they services, or programs?

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St
Boston MA 02110
USA
www.fsf.org  www.gnu.org
Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software.
  Use free telephony http://directory.fsf.org/category/tel/