GNU founder Stallman calls DRM’d Steam for Linux games “unethical”

arstechnica.com

12 points·macco··7 comments

Sensationalism alert. This is a soundbyte; here's more context and less shitty journalism: http://www.muktware.com/4042/richard-m-stallman-steam-good-g...

Eh, maybe the headline, but the article is mediocre.

Why not link to Stallman's actual post? https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/nonfree-games.en.html

Stallman is being consistent with his previous statements yet surprises me by being quite pragmatic about the issue.

He has a valid point. You have more freedom if you run proprietary software on free OS than when you run proprietary software on proprietary OS. As a bonus point presence of Steam on Linux will probably bring fixes to free software graphics and sound components.

As a random person who likes the idea of open and free software (and realize "open" and "free" aren't interchangeable), but doesn't care if people want to charge for their software (in this case games,) I'm glad he's offering a pragmatist view on this.

Well, rms was never against charging for software; in fact, he encourages it.

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html

The page basically says "Go ahead. Charge for the software as much as you'd like. Because the user can always download your software without charge from somewhere else anyway."

Which differs from non-free software how?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com