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This is Info file ../info/emacs, produced by Makeinfo-1.54 from the input file emacs.texi. File: emacs, Node: Antinews, Next: Manifesto, Prev: Command Arguments, Up: Top Emacs 18 Antinews ***************** For those users who live backwards in time, here is information about downgrading to Emacs version 18. We hope you will enjoy the greater simplicity that results from the absence of many Emacs 19 features. Packages Removed ================ To reduce the size of the distribution, we have eliminated numerous packages including GNUS, VC (version control), Hexl (for editing binary files), Edebug, Emerge, Mpuz, Spook, and Gomoku. Major modes removed in Emacs 18 include C++ mode, Awk mode, Icon mode, Asm mode, Makefile mode, Perl mode and SGML mode. The function `enable-flow-control' does not exist; see the file `PROBLEMS' in the Emacs distribution for directions for coping with flow control. The Calendar feature provided is a very simple one. All it can do is display three months, by default centered around the current month. If you give it a numeric argument, that specifies the number of months forward or back. Fundamental Changes =================== Auto save and garbage collection happen only while you are typing, never while you are idle. This is to make them more like affectionate pets. Think of them as cats that like to sit on your terminal only when you are working there. Transient Mark mode and Line Number mode are absent in Emacs 18. If you are an Emacs user, you are smart enough to keep track of the mark in your head, and you don't need line numbers because you can search for precisely the text you want. There are no menu bars or scroll bars; no faces, text properties or overlays. There are no minibuffer history commands. There is only one frame, so the Emacs 19 `C-x 5' command series is meaningless. Instead, `C-x 5' in Emacs 18 splits the selected window horizontally (like `C-x 3' in Emacs 19). Another simplification in Emacs 18 is that all input events are characters. Function keys and arrow keys are represented as sequences of characters; the terminal-specific Emacs Lisp file for your terminal is responsible for defining them. Mouse buttons are defined by a special keymap, `mouse-map'. See the file `x-mouse.el' for how to bind mouse clicks. Character codes 128 and above always display using `\NNN' notation. For codes 0 through 31, you can choose between `\NNN' and `^C' by setting the variable `ctl-arrow'; but that is the only thing you can specify about how character codes should display. You can't refer to files on other machines using special "magic" file names. Instead, you must use the `ftp' library with commands such as `M-x ftp-find-file' and `M-x ftp-write-file'. The character for terminating an incremental search is now ESC, not RET as in Emacs 19. If you type RET, that searches for a newline; thus, you can insert a newline in the search string just as you would insert it in the text. Key Binding Changes =================== The key for `backward-paragraph' is now `M-['. The key for `forward-paragraph' is now `M-]'. The command `repeat-complex-command' is now on `C-x ESC'. The register commands have different key bindings: `C-x /' `point-to-register' `C-x j' `jump-to-register' `C-x x' `copy-to-register' `C-x g' `insert-register' `C-x r' `copy-rectangle-to-register' The narrowing commands have also been moved: `C-x n' `narrow-to-region' `C-x p' `narrow-to-page' `C-x w' `widen' And the abbrev commands as well: `C-x C-a' `add-mode-abbrev' `C-x +' `add-global-abbrev' `C-x C-h' `inverse-add-mode-abbrev' `C-x -' `inverse-add-global-abbrev' `C-x `' `expand-abbrev' There are no key bindings for the rectangle commands. `C-x a' now runs the command `append-to-buffer'. The key bindings `C-x 4 r' and `C-x 4 C-o' do not exist. The help commands `C-h C-f', `C-h C-k' and `C-h p' do not exist in Emacs 18. The command `C-M-l' (`reposition-window') is absent. Likewise `C-M-r' (`isearch-backward-regexp'). The "two column" commands starting with `C-x 6' don't exist in Emacs 18. The TeX mode bindings of `C-c {' and `C-c }' have been moved to `M-{' and `M-}'. (These commands are `up-list' and `tex-insert-braces'; they are the TeX equivalents of `M-(' and `M-)'.) Incremental Search Changes ========================== As mentioned above, the character for terminating an incremental search is now ESC, not RET as in Emacs 19. If you type RET, that searches for a newline; thus, you can insert a newline in the search string just as you would insert it in the text. There is no ring of previous search strings in Emacs 18. You can reuse the most recent search string, but that's all. If `case-fold-search' is non-`nil', then incremental search is *always* case-insensitive. Typing an upper-case letter in the search string has no effect on this. Spaces in the incremental search string match only spaces. The meanings of the special search characters are no longer controlled by a keymap. Instead, particular variables named `search-...-char' specify the character that should have a particular function. For example, `C-s' repeats the search because the value of `search-repeat-char' is `?\C-s'. Editing Command Changes ======================= `C-n' (`next-line') does not check the variable `next-line-add-newlines'. The sexp commands such as `C-M-f' no longer know anything about comments, in modes such as Lisp mode where the end of a comment is the end of the line. They treat the text inside a comment as if it were actual code. If comments containing unbalanced parentheses cause trouble, you can use the commands `C-M-n' and `C-M-p', which do ignore comments. You can't store file names in registers, and there are no frame configurations at all. The command `M-x string-rectangle' does not exist either. The undo command in Emacs 18 is not careful about where to leave point when you undo a deletion. It ends up at one end or the other of the text just undeleted. You must be on the lookout for this, and move point appropriately. Kill commands do nothing useful in read-only buffers. They just beep. `M-z C' in Emacs 18 kills up to but not including the first occurrence of C. If C does not occur in the buffer after point, `M-z' kills the whole rest of the buffer. The function `erase-buffer' is not a command in Emacs 18. You can call it from a Lisp program, but not interactively. The motivation for this is to protect you from accidentally deleting (not killing) the entire text of a buffer that you want to keep. With subsequent changes in even earlier Emacs versions (such as version 18.54), you might be unable to undo the `erase-buffer'. `M-x fill-nonuniform-paragraphs' and Adaptive Fill mode do not exist. Other Brief Notes ================= Outline mode exists only as a major mode, not as a minor mode. `M-!' (`shell-command') always runs the command synchronously, even if the command ends with `&'. Emacs 18 has no special mode for change log files. It is a good idea to use Indented Text mode, and specify 8 as the value of the variable `left-margin'. The command `M-x comment-region' does not exist. The command `M-x super-apropos' does not exist. `C-x q' (`kbd-macro-query') now uses `C-d' to terminate all iterations of the keyboard macro, rather than ESC. The `M-x setenv' command is missing in Emacs 18. `M-$' now uses the Unix spell program instead of the GNU program Ispell. If the word around point is a misspelling, it asks you for a replacement. To check spelling of larger units of text, use `M-x spell-region' or `M-x spell-buffer'. These commands check all words in the specified piece of text. For each word that is not correct, they ask you to specify a replacement, and then replace each occurrence. `M-x gdb' still exists in Emacs 18. `M-x dbx' exists, but is somewhat different (use `C-h m' to find the details). `M-x sdb' does not exist at all, but who wants to use SDB? In Buffer Menu mode, the commands `%' and `C-o' don't work in Emacs 18. The `v' command has been eliminated and merged with the `q' command, which now exits the buffer menu, displaying all the buffers that you have marked. The View commands (such as `M-x view-buffer' and `M-x view-file') now use recursive edits. When you exit viewing, the recursive edit returns to its caller. Emacs 18, like most programs, interprets command line options only when it is started-not later on. The variable to control whether files can set local variables is called `inhibit-local-variables'. A non-`nil' value means ask the user before obeying any local variables lists. The user option for controlling use of the `eval' local variable is now called `inhibit-local-eval'. A non-`nil' value means to ask the user before obeying any `eval' local variable. File Handling Changes ===================== As mentioned above, you can't refer to files on other machines using special "magic" file names. Instead, you must use the `ftp' library with commands such as `M-x ftp-find-file' and `M-x ftp-write-file'. When you run `M-x revert-buffer' with no prefix argument, if the buffer has an auto save file more recent that the visited file, `revert-buffer' asks whether to revert from the auto save file instead. When `C-x s' (`save-some-buffers') offers to save each buffer, you have only two choices: save it, or don't save it. `M-x recover-file' turns off Auto Save mode in the current buffer. To turn it on again, use `M-x auto-save-mode'. The command `M-x rename-uniquely' does not exist; instead, use `M-x rename-buffer' and try various names until you find one that isn't in use. Completion can make this easier. The directory name abbreviation feature is gone in Emacs 18. Emacs 18 has no idea of file truenames, and does not try to detect when you visit a file via a symbolic link. You should check manually when you visit a file, so as to edit it in the directory where it is actually stored. This way you can make sure that backup files and change log entries go in the proper directory. `M-x compare-windows' ignores any prefix argument and always considers case and whitespace differences significant. As for the other ways of comparing files, `M-x diff' and `M-x diff-backup', they don't exist at all. Mail Changes ============ `%' is now a word-component character in Mail mode. This is to be compatible with Text mode. The variable `mail-signature' is not meaningful; if you wish to insert your signature in a mail message, you must type `C-c C-w'. Mail aliases expand only when you send the message--never when you type them in. Rmail now gets new mail into your primary mail file from `~/mbox' as well as from your system inbox file. This is handy if you occasionally check your newest mail with the `mail' program; whatever you have looked at and saved with `mail' will be brought into Rmail the next time you run Rmail. The Rmail summary buffer is now much simpler. Only a few special commands are available there: `n', `p', and `j' for motion, `d' and `u' for deletion, and SPC and DEL for scrolling the message. To do anything else, you must go to the Rmail buffer. Also, changes in the Rmail buffer don't update the summary; to do that, you must make a new summary. The Rmail command `rmail-resend' (accessible via `f' with a prefix argument in Emacs 19) does not exist in Emacs 18. Neither does `rmail-retry-failure' (`M-m' in Emacs 19). The `e' command is now "expunge", just like `x'. To edit the current message, type `w', which works in Emacs 19 as well. If you type `e' meaning to edit, and it expunges instead--well, you shouldn't have deleted those messages if you still wanted them. The `<' and `b' commands have been removed in Emacs 18. Likewise `C-M-t' (`rmail-summarize-by-topic') and `M-x unrmail'. Rmail in Emacs 18 is so good, that we can't imagine anyone who has tried it would ever wish to use another mail reader. The default output file for `o' is now always the last file that you used with `o'. The variable `rmail-output-file-alist' has no special meaning. Emacs 18 Rmail does not know anything about Content Length fields in messages. C Mode Changes ============== In C mode, the keys `M-a' and `M-e' now have their usual meanings: motion by sentences. This is useful while editing the comments in a C program, but not useful for editing code. We hope this will encourage you to write lots of comments. The commands `M-x c-up-conditional' and `M-x c-backslash-region' have been removed entirely in Emacs 18. Compilation Changes =================== `M-x compile' now has a much simpler and faster parser for error messages. However, it understands fewer different formats for error messages, and is not as easy to customize. There is no special mode for compilation buffers. When you select the compilation buffer itself, it is just ordinary text. Speaking of selecting the compilation buffer, you do need to do that from time to time to see whether the compilation has finished, because Emacs 18 does not display `Compiling' in the mode line to tell you the compilation is still going. Shell Mode ========== Shell mode in Emacs 18 does nothing special for the keys TAB, `M-?', `C-a', `C-d'. The commands `M-x dirs' and `M-x send-invisible' are also gone. The history commands `M-p' and so on are not available either; instead, use `C-c C-y' (`copy-last-shell-input'). This copies the previous bunch of shell input, and inserts it into the buffer before point. No final newline is inserted, and the input copied is not resubmitted until you type RET. Use `C-c C-d' to send an "end of file" to the shell process. Dired Changes ============= For simplicity, Dired in Emacs 18 supports just one kind of mark: the deletion flag, `*'. The Emacs 19 Dired commands for flagging files do work in Emacs 18, but all the other mark-related commands do not. The Dired subdirectory commands don't exist in Emacs 18. A Dired buffer can contain only one directory. In particular, this means that the variable `dired-listing-switches' must not contain the `R' option. (The `F' option is also not allowed.) The commands for using `find' with Dired have been removed for simplicity, also. Emacs 18 Dired provides the following commands for manipulating files immediately, and no others. All of these commands apply to the file listed on the current line. `c' Copies the file described on the current line. You must supply a file name to copy to, using the minibuffer. `f' Visits the file described on the current line. It is just like typing `C-x C-f' and supplying that file name. If the file on this line is a subdirectory, `f' actually causes Dired to be invoked on that subdirectory. `G' Change the group of the file described on the current line. `M' Change the file mode of the file described on the current line. `o' Like `f', but uses another window to display the file's buffer. The Dired buffer remains visible in the first window. This is like using `C-x 4 C-f' to visit the file. `O' Change the owner of the file described on the current line. (On most systems, you must be a superuser to do this.) `r' Renames the file described on the current line. You must supply a file name to rename to, using the minibuffer. `v' Views the file described on this line using `M-x view-file'. Viewing a file is like visiting it, but is slanted toward moving around in the file conveniently and does not allow changing the file. File: emacs, Node: Manifesto, Prev: Antinews, Up: Top The GNU Manifesto ***************** The GNU Manifesto which appears below was written by Richard Stallman at the beginning of the GNU project, to ask for participation and support. For the first few years, it was updated in minor ways to account for developments, but now it seems best to leave it unchanged as most people have seen it. Since that time, we have learned about certain common misunderstandings that different wording could help avoid. Footnotes help clarify these points. For up-to-date information about the available GNU software, please see the latest issue of the GNU's Bulletin. The list is much too long to include here. What's GNU? Gnu's Not Unix! ============================ GNU, which stands for Gnu's Not Unix, is the name for the complete Unix-compatible software system which I am writing so that I can give it away free to everyone who can use it.(1) Several other volunteers are helping me. Contributions of time, money, programs and equipment are greatly needed. So far we have an Emacs text editor with Lisp for writing editor commands, a source level debugger, a yacc-compatible parser generator, a linker, and around 35 utilities. A shell (command interpreter) is nearly completed. A new portable optimizing C compiler has compiled itself and may be released this year. An initial kernel exists but many more features are needed to emulate Unix. When the kernel and compiler are finished, it will be possible to distribute a GNU system suitable for program development. We will use TeX as our text formatter, but an nroff is being worked on. We will use the free, portable X window system as well. After this we will add a portable Common Lisp, an Empire game, a spreadsheet, and hundreds of other things, plus on-line documentation. We hope to supply, eventually, everything useful that normally comes with a Unix system, and more. GNU will be able to run Unix programs, but will not be identical to Unix. We will make all improvements that are convenient, based on our experience with other operating systems. In particular, we plan to have longer file names, file version numbers, a crashproof file system, file name completion perhaps, terminal-independent display support, and perhaps eventually a Lisp-based window system through which several Lisp programs and ordinary Unix programs can share a screen. Both C and Lisp will be available as system programming languages. We will try to support UUCP, MIT Chaosnet, and Internet protocols for communication. GNU is aimed initially at machines in the 68000/16000 class with virtual memory, because they are the easiest machines to make it run on. The extra effort to make it run on smaller machines will be left to someone who wants to use it on them. To avoid horrible confusion, please pronounce the `G' in the word `GNU' when it is the name of this project. Why I Must Write GNU ==================== I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I must share it with other people who like it. Software sellers want to divide the users and conquer them, making each user agree not to share with others. I refuse to break solidarity with other users in this way. I cannot in good conscience sign a nondisclosure agreement or a software license agreement. For years I worked within the Artificial Intelligence Lab to resist such tendencies and other inhospitalities, but eventually they had gone too far: I could not remain in an institution where such things are done for me against my will. So that I can continue to use computers without dishonor, I have decided to put together a sufficient body of free software so that I will be able to get along without any software that is not free. I have resigned from the AI lab to deny MIT any legal excuse to prevent me from giving GNU away. Why GNU Will Be Compatible with Unix ==================================== Unix is not my ideal system, but it is not too bad. The essential features of Unix seem to be good ones, and I think I can fill in what Unix lacks without spoiling them. And a system compatible with Unix would be convenient for many other people to adopt. How GNU Will Be Available ========================= GNU is not in the public domain. Everyone will be permitted to modify and redistribute GNU, but no distributor will be allowed to restrict its further redistribution. That is to say, proprietary modifications will not be allowed. I want to make sure that all versions of GNU remain free. Why Many Other Programmers Want to Help ======================================= I have found many other programmers who are excited about GNU and want to help. Many programmers are unhappy about the commercialization of system software. It may enable them to make more money, but it requires them to feel in conflict with other programmers in general rather than feel as comrades. The fundamental act of friendship among programmers is the sharing of programs; marketing arrangements now typically used essentially forbid programmers to treat others as friends. The purchaser of software must choose between friendship and obeying the law. Naturally, many decide that friendship is more important. But those who believe in law often do not feel at ease with either choice. They become cynical and think that programming is just a way of making money. By working on and using GNU rather than proprietary programs, we can be hospitable to everyone and obey the law. In addition, GNU serves as an example to inspire and a banner to rally others to join us in sharing. This can give us a feeling of harmony which is impossible if we use software that is not free. For about half the programmers I talk to, this is an important happiness that money cannot replace. How You Can Contribute ====================== I am asking computer manufacturers for donations of machines and money. I'm asking individuals for donations of programs and work. One consequence you can expect if you donate machines is that GNU will run on them at an early date. The machines should be complete, ready to use systems, approved for use in a residential area, and not in need of sophisticated cooling or power. I have found very many programmers eager to contribute part-time work for GNU. For most projects, such part-time distributed work would be very hard to coordinate; the independently-written parts would not work together. But for the particular task of replacing Unix, this problem is absent. A complete Unix system contains hundreds of utility programs, each of which is documented separately. Most interface specifications are fixed by Unix compatibility. If each contributor can write a compatible replacement for a single Unix utility, and make it work properly in place of the original on a Unix system, then these utilities will work right when put together. Even allowing for Murphy to create a few unexpected problems, assembling these components will be a feasible task. (The kernel will require closer communication and will be worked on by a small, tight group.) If I get donations of money, I may be able to hire a few people full or part time. The salary won't be high by programmers' standards, but I'm looking for people for whom building community spirit is as important as making money. I view this as a way of enabling dedicated people to devote their full energies to working on GNU by sparing them the need to make a living in another way. Why All Computer Users Will Benefit =================================== Once GNU is written, everyone will be able to obtain good system software free, just like air.(2) This means much more than just saving everyone the price of a Unix license. It means that much wasteful duplication of system programming effort will be avoided. This effort can go instead into advancing the state of the art. Complete system sources will be available to everyone. As a result, a user who needs changes in the system will always be free to make them himself, or hire any available programmer or company to make them for him. Users will no longer be at the mercy of one programmer or company which owns the sources and is in sole position to make changes. Schools will be able to provide a much more educational environment by encouraging all students to study and improve the system code. Harvard's computer lab used to have the policy that no program could be installed on the system if its sources were not on public display, and upheld it by actually refusing to install certain programs. I was very much inspired by this. Finally, the overhead of considering who owns the system software and what one is or is not entitled to do with it will be lifted. Arrangements to make people pay for using a program, including licensing of copies, always incur a tremendous cost to society through the cumbersome mechanisms necessary to figure out how much (that is, which programs) a person must pay for. And only a police state can force everyone to obey them. Consider a space station where air must be manufactured at great cost: charging each breather per liter of air may be fair, but wearing the metered gas mask all day and all night is intolerable even if everyone can afford to pay the air bill. And the TV cameras everywhere to see if you ever take the mask off are outrageous. It's better to support the air plant with a head tax and chuck the masks. Copying all or parts of a program is as natural to a programmer as breathing, and as productive. It ought to be as free. Some Easily Rebutted Objections to GNU's Goals ============================================== "Nobody will use it if it is free, because that means they can't rely on any support." "You have to charge for the program to pay for providing the support." If people would rather pay for GNU plus service than get GNU free without service, a company to provide just service to people who have obtained GNU free ought to be profitable.(3) We must distinguish between support in the form of real programming work and mere handholding. The former is something one cannot rely on from a software vendor. If your problem is not shared by enough people, the vendor will tell you to get lost. If your business needs to be able to rely on support, the only way is to have all the necessary sources and tools. Then you can hire any available person to fix your problem; you are not at the mercy of any individual. With Unix, the price of sources puts this out of consideration for most businesses. With GNU this will be easy. It is still possible for there to be no available competent person, but this problem cannot be blamed on distribution arrangements. GNU does not eliminate all the world's problems, only some of them. Meanwhile, the users who know nothing about computers need handholding: doing things for them which they could easily do themselves but don't know how. Such services could be provided by companies that sell just hand-holding and repair service. If it is true that users would rather spend money and get a product with service, they will also be willing to buy the service having got the product free. The service companies will compete in quality and price; users will not be tied to any particular one. Meanwhile, those of us who don't need the service should be able to use the program without paying for the service. "You cannot reach many people without advertising, and you must charge for the program to support that." "It's no use advertising a program people can get free." There are various forms of free or very cheap publicity that can be used to inform numbers of computer users about something like GNU. But it may be true that one can reach more microcomputer users with advertising. If this is really so, a business which advertises the service of copying and mailing GNU for a fee ought to be successful enough to pay for its advertising and more. This way, only the users who benefit from the advertising pay for it. On the other hand, if many people get GNU from their friends, and such companies don't succeed, this will show that advertising was not really necessary to spread GNU. Why is it that free market advocates don't want to let the free market decide this?(4) "My company needs a proprietary operating system to get a competitive edge." GNU will remove operating system software from the realm of competition. You will not be able to get an edge in this area, but neither will your competitors be able to get an edge over you. You and they will compete in other areas, while benefiting mutually in this one. If your business is selling an operating system, you will not like GNU, but that's tough on you. If your business is something else, GNU can save you from being pushed into the expensive business of selling operating systems. I would like to see GNU development supported by gifts from many manufacturers and users, reducing the cost to each.(5) "Don't programmers deserve a reward for their creativity?" If anything deserves a reward, it is social contribution. Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so far as society is free to use the results. If programmers deserve to be rewarded for creating innovative programs, by the same token they deserve to be punished if they restrict the use of these programs. "Shouldn't a programmer be able to ask for a reward for his creativity?" There is nothing wrong with wanting pay for work, or seeking to maximize one's income, as long as one does not use means that are destructive. But the means customary in the field of software today are based on destruction. Extracting money from users of a program by restricting their use of it is destructive because the restrictions reduce the amount and the ways that the program can be used. This reduces the amount of wealth that humanity derives from the program. When there is a deliberate choice to restrict, the harmful consequences are deliberate destruction. The reason a good citizen does not use such destructive means to become wealthier is that, if everyone did so, we would all become poorer from the mutual destructiveness. This is Kantian ethics; or, the Golden Rule. Since I do not like the consequences that result if everyone hoards information, I am required to consider it wrong for one to do so. Specifically, the desire to be rewarded for one's creativity does not justify depriving the world in general of all or part of that creativity. "Won't programmers starve?" I could answer that nobody is forced to be a programmer. Most of us cannot manage to get any money for standing on the street and making faces. But we are not, as a result, condemned to spend our lives standing on the street making faces, and starving. We do something else. But that is the wrong answer because it accepts the questioner's implicit assumption: that without ownership of software, programmers cannot possibly be paid a cent. Supposedly it is all or nothing. The real reason programmers will not starve is that it will still be possible for them to get paid for programming; just not paid as much as now. Restricting copying is not the only basis for business in software. It is the most common basis because it brings in the most money. If it were prohibited, or rejected by the customer, software business would move to other bases of organization which are now used less often. There are always numerous ways to organize any kind of business. Probably programming will not be as lucrative on the new basis as it is now. But that is not an argument against the change. It is not considered an injustice that sales clerks make the salaries that they now do. If programmers made the same, that would not be an injustice either. (In practice they would still make considerably more than that.) "Don't people have a right to control how their creativity is used?" "Control over the use of one's ideas" really constitutes control over other people's lives; and it is usually used to make their lives more difficult. People who have studied the issue of intellectual property rights carefully (such as lawyers) say that there is no intrinsic right to intellectual property. The kinds of supposed intellectual property rights that the government recognizes were created by specific acts of legislation for specific purposes. For example, the patent system was established to encourage inventors to disclose the details of their inventions. Its purpose was to help society rather than to help inventors. At the time, the life span of 17 years for a patent was short compared with the rate of advance of the state of the art. Since patents are an issue only among manufacturers, for whom the cost and effort of a license agreement are small compared with setting up production, the patents often do not do much harm. They do not obstruct most individuals who use patented products. The idea of copyright did not exist in ancient times, when authors frequently copied other authors at length in works of non-fiction. This practice was useful, and is the only way many authors' works have survived even in part. The copyright system was created expressly for the purpose of encouraging authorship. In the domain for which it was invented--books, which could be copied economically only on a printing press--it did little harm, and did not obstruct most of the individuals who read the books. All intellectual property rights are just licenses granted by society because it was thought, rightly or wrongly, that society as a whole would benefit by granting them. But in any particular situation, we have to ask: are we really better off granting such license? What kind of act are we licensing a person to do? The case of programs today is very different from that of books a hundred years ago. The fact that the easiest way to copy a program is from one neighbor to another, the fact that a program has both source code and object code which are distinct, and the fact that a program is used rather than read and enjoyed, combine to create a situation in which a person who enforces a copyright is harming society as a whole both materially and spiritually; in which a person should not do so regardless of whether the law enables him to. "Competition makes things get done better." The paradigm of competition is a race: by rewarding the winner, we encourage everyone to run faster. When capitalism really works this way, it does a good job; but its defenders are wrong in assuming it always works this way. If the runners forget why the reward is offered and become intent on winning, no matter how, they may find other strategies--such as, attacking other runners. If the runners get into a fist fight, they will all finish late. Proprietary and secret software is the moral equivalent of runners in a fist fight. Sad to say, the only referee we've got does not seem to object to fights; he just regulates them ("For every ten yards you run, you can fire one shot"). He really ought to break them up, and penalize runners for even trying to fight. "Won't everyone stop programming without a monetary incentive?" Actually, many people will program with absolutely no monetary incentive. Programming has an irresistible fascination for some people, usually the people who are best at it. There is no shortage of professional musicians who keep at it even though they have no hope of making a living that way. But really this question, though commonly asked, is not appropriate to the situation. Pay for programmers will not disappear, only become less. So the right question is, will anyone program with a reduced monetary incentive? My experience shows that they will. For more than ten years, many of the world's best programmers worked at the Artificial Intelligence Lab for far less money than they could have had anywhere else. They got many kinds of non-monetary rewards: fame and appreciation, for example. And creativity is also fun, a reward in itself. Then most of them left when offered a chance to do the same interesting work for a lot of money. What the facts show is that people will program for reasons other than riches; but if given a chance to make a lot of money as well, they will come to expect and demand it. Low-paying organizations do poorly in competition with high-paying ones, but they do not have to do badly if the high-paying ones are banned. "We need the programmers desperately. If they demand that we stop helping our neighbors, we have to obey." You're never so desperate that you have to obey this sort of demand. Remember: millions for defense, but not a cent for tribute! "Programmers need to make a living somehow." In the short run, this is true. However, there are plenty of ways that programmers could make a living without selling the right to use a program. This way is customary now because it brings programmers and businessmen the most money, not because it is the only way to make a living. It is easy to find other ways if you want to find them. Here are a number of examples. A manufacturer introducing a new computer will pay for the porting of operating systems onto the new hardware. The sale of teaching, hand-holding and maintenance services could also employ programmers. People with new ideas could distribute programs as freeware, asking for donations from satisfied users, or selling hand-holding services. I have met people who are already working this way successfully. Users with related needs can form users' groups, and pay dues. A group would contract with programming companies to write programs that the group's members would like to use. All sorts of development can be funded with a Software Tax: Suppose everyone who buys a computer has to pay x percent of the price as a software tax. The government gives this to an agency like the NSF to spend on software development. But if the computer buyer makes a donation to software development himself, he can take a credit against the tax. He can donate to the project of his own choosing--often, chosen because he hopes to use the results when it is done. He can take a credit for any amount of donation up to the total tax he had to pay. The total tax rate could be decided by a vote of the payers of the tax, weighted according to the amount they will be taxed on. The consequences: * The computer-using community supports software development. * This community decides what level of support is needed. * Users who care which projects their share is spent on can choose this for themselves. In the long run, making programs free is a step toward the post-scarcity world, where nobody will have to work very hard just to make a living. People will be free to devote themselves to activities that are fun, such as programming, after spending the necessary ten hours a week on required tasks such as legislation, family counseling, robot repair and asteroid prospecting. There will be no need to be able to make a living from programming. We have already greatly reduced the amount of work that the whole society must do for its actual productivity, but only a little of this has translated itself into leisure for workers because much nonproductive activity is required to accompany productive activity. The main causes of this are bureaucracy and isometric struggles against competition. Free software will greatly reduce these drains in the area of software production. We must do this, in order for technical gains in productivity to translate into less work for us. ---------- Footnotes ---------- (1) The wording here was careless. The intention was that nobody would have to pay for *permission* to use the GNU system. But the words don't make this clear, and people often interpret them as saying that copies of GNU should always be distributed at little or no charge. That was never the intent; later on, the manifesto mentions the possibility of companies providing the service of distribution for a profit. Subsequently I have learned to distinguish carefully between "free" in the sense of freedom and "free" in the sense of price. Free software is software that users have the freedom to distribute and change. Some users may obtain copies at no charge, while others pay to obtain copies--and if the funds help support improving the software, so much the better. The important thing is that everyone who has a copy has the freedom to cooperate with others in using it. (2) This is another place I failed to distinguish carefully between the two different meanings of "free". The statement as it stands is not false--you can get copies of GNU software at no charge, from your friends or over the net. But it does suggest the wrong idea. (3) Several such companies now exist. (4) The Free Software Foundation raises most of its funds from a distribution service, although it is a charity rather than a company. If *no one* chooses to obtain copies by ordering the from the FSF, it will be unable to do its work. But this does not mean that proprietary restrictions are justified to force every user to pay. If a small fraction of all the users order copies from the FSF, that is sufficient to keep the FSF afloat. So we ask users to choose to support us in this way. Have you done your part? (5) A group of computer companies recently pooled funds to support maintenance of the GNU C Compiler.