I really disagree with Stalman on this concept because it applies equally to the powerful and the powerless.
I may not be putting this eloquently, but the user of the computer could be a huge company using their freedom to build a killing machine. Their are real balances of power that this seems to not address. I'm probably just kind of rambling. I. Not trying to offend anyone.
EDIT: I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's taken as a given that this type of free software would somehow address these imbalances of power and I don't think that's the lesson that you could take from the last 20 years.
Free software introduces one balance of power: by drastically reducing switching costs it reduces the power of the software creator.
As an example: if I don't like the direction MS is heading with MS Word my only real options are never upgrading or switching to a competitor. That switch would be painful, I would have to learn a new interface, import my files etc. So MS can push a lot of stuff on me, as long as enduring that is less painful than switching to another program. In contrast, if I dislike the direction Libre Office is heading I fork it and selectively merge the changes I like. And if my opinion is shared widely enough my fork might replace the original project.
That's also why benevolent dictators are so popular for free software projects: it's efficient, and if the dictator becomes a tyrant someone will just fork.
What free software doesn't is prevent the construction of killer robot swarms. But if the killer robot swarm is free software you can fork it and build a killer robot killer swarm :)
> That's also why benevolent dictators are so popular for free software projects: it's efficient, and if the dictator becomes a tyrant someone will just fork.
Just like a blockchain that runs of coffee instead of electricity.
I may not be putting this eloquently, but the user of the computer could be a huge company using their freedom to build a killing machine. Their are real balances of power that this seems to not address. I'm probably just kind of rambling. I. Not trying to offend anyone.
EDIT: I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's taken as a given that this type of free software would somehow address these imbalances of power and I don't think that's the lesson that you could take from the last 20 years.