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Freedom of speech -> Freedom to change the software and make it better
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- Free software allows modifications and improvements, creating a scientific
community where people help each other, without discrimination;
this development is not driven by commercial purposes (profit) alone;
from this perspective, free software creates a new
humanism,
a revolution in software creation;
- IT knowledge spreads to the scientific community, not being controlled
by few people any more. It's a civilization issue.
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Freedom of the press -> Freedom to copy (and to create)
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- With sources available, copying is allowed and
encouraged;
- The right to copy software is comparable to the freedom of the press;
- Free software achieves the goal of knowledge sharing, free
knowledge is a right for everyone;
free software can be distributed to students,
achieving a fundamental goal in teaching: transferring
culture and knowledge;
- Free software teaches the culture of lawfulness and respect for
copyright.
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Freedom of studying (transparency, warranty and reliability)
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- With sources available, studying (opening
the hood) is allowed, as is learning and growing;
- source code allows verification, a basic tenet of modern
science and the scientific method; it's the very same
scientific community which endorses the code; without
verification all we get is dogmas and external authorities
(monopoly);
- we don't foster an obscurantist approach;
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Freedom of teaching -> Freedom of choice
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- With sources available to everyone, we have true competition:
there are many companies in the marketplace selling
different distributions of GNU/Linux;
a teacher is free to choose the distribution most suitable to
his/her didactic goals;
- Besides the different distributions, GNU/Linux benefits from
several software producers: e.g.. KDE, GNOME, web
servers, database servers, languages, etc.;
- Summarizing, there is ample choice in products and
solutions for the teacher, who gets due freedom in his/her
teaching.
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