@bonkmaykr @xianc78 You are deeply insulting rms by referring to his work as "FOSS"; https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/floss-and-foss.html

He does free software.

>I should drop everything I rely on to do my work
I have never written to do that once.

I have just pointed out how it's clearly not your work if you rely on proprietary software to do it.


If people know that free software exists and was written to give the users freedom, without the message being distorted by "open source" degeneracy, the user has been given the chance to decide whether they will take their freedom back or submit to a proprietary master.

>I think a lot of the evil of proprietary software is overblown too
The evil of proprietary software is always underblown and discredited up - it's far worse than you could even imagine.

>Not all proprietary software is malware
Can you name a unicorn proprietary software that isn't malware?

Not respecting the users freedom is inherently malicious, but for that point I'll exclude that.

>people understand how FOSS is more trustworthy and make it a selling point
Focusing on a merely practical point as a "selling" point is doomed for failure, as proprietary software companies are very good at pointing out the very few cases where previously free software had become untrustworthy (i.e. xz-utils backdooring, where proprietary software had been slipped into a release archive) and very good at covering up the countless cases of proprietary malware.

If a company promises "trustworthy" proprietary software (i.e. partially source-available proprietary software shilled as fully source-available "open source" software), why would a user "sold" on trustworthy software not pay for a copy and run it?

If the user is instead taught to value freedom, they will say no to such proprietary software and remain free.

>Telling someone they need to go schizo and change their computing habits overnight to become some copyleft protestor
I have never written that.

>When I found out about the FOSS movement
A disaster as no such movement exists.

There is the pure and true free software movement and there is the corporate bootlicking "open source" movement and "FOSS" attempts to be neutral between both - but even fails at that.

>was able to selectively choose some free software alternatives
A disaster as you considered them to be mere alternatives, rather than free replacements.

>Software freedom is all about making good choices for yourself.
If you are always going to continue to surrender your freedom to proprietary software, are you making good choices for yourself?