[yavor at doganov.org: Re: Defining Free Software Business]

[Reinhard Mueller]

Am Dienstag, den 27.06.2006, 12:12 +0200 schrieb Alfred M. Szmidt:
> Can you change the CPU microcode (I'm not familiar with new CPU's)?
> If you can't, then there is little point in having it as free software
> since you wouldn't be able to update your microcode.  Kinda like
> wanting the source code to your toaster, but the software is on a ROM
> chip. 

This is actually an interesting point: even if I can't change it, I
would really be interested in the source code of my toaster software.
Modifying the software is only one aspect of Free Software. Being able
to understand how it works is another one.

I might, for example, want to build my own toaster and look at some
algorithms used in that toaster software. Or I might encounter a bug in
the toaster software, and while still not being able to fix it, the
possibility to look at the source code might help me to find a way to
work around it. Or I might just want to check whether the toaster
collects information about its usage and sends it to the producer over
the internet (there are internet enabled toasters, aren't there?).

Thanks,
Reinhard

P.S. As I send this mail with an @fsfeurope.org address, let me state
explicitly that I express my personal opinion, like everybody else here.
Just to avoid misunderstandings :-)
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