After my last post regarding most people’s immediate reaction to the proposition of using free software, entitled I Don’t Know What Linux is but I Don’t Like It, I got many interesting comments and put the issue to rest for the time being. However, I take every occasion I can to promote free software—when I see someone using Microsoft Office, I tell them about OpenOffice.org or NeoOffice; when I see someone using AIM, iChat, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, etc., I tell them about Pidgin or Adium. Less frequently, I attempt to engage someone in a conversation about GNU/Linux. The conversation always goes something like this:

Me: Would you like to try Linux (or OpenOffice, Pidgin, etc.) ?
Friend: Ehhh… Why would I want to?
Me: It’s free.
Friend: Oh—I already have Windows (or OS X, Office, etc.) so I guess I don’t want what you’re telling me about.
Me: No, it’s free as in freedom.
Friend: I’m not interested in freedom. / Freedom isn’t valuable to me. / I don’t know what ‘freedom’ means.

I’m not quick enough to effectively communicate what freedom means to someone in the course of a brief, casual conversation. Instead I write pithy comments on a blog that only my dad reads (thanks, Dad). So, correct me if I’m wrong, but this is what I think my friends hear when I ask them to try free software:

Me: Hey, I see you use X. Why not try Y?
Friend: Yes, I use X. Why should I use Y instead?
Me: Well, Y costs $0.00 and X costs $300.
Friend: Oh, well, I already have X and I don’t recall ever taking $300 out of my pocket to pay for it so good for me.
Me: blah blah blah blah freedom blah blah blah blah blah

Using some analogous concepts, here is what the conversation means to me:

Me: What government do you live under?
Friend: I have the one with the Microsoft Silver Constitution.
Me: Would you like to adopt the Free Constitution instead?
Friend: Why would I want to? What’s different about it?
Me: The Free Constitution gives you the right to read it, copy it, distribute it, discuss it with others, and even modify it. With the Microsoft Silver Constitution, it’s illegal for you to read it, copy it, distribute it, discuss it with others, or modify it. If you do any of those things you’ll be called a pirate, fined, and maybe put in jail.
Friend: Hmm… Well, the Silver Constitution is shiny and I paid $300 for it, while the Free Constitution is made of recycled newspaper clippings and costs nothing. All that freedom and rights talk is just philosophy.

People will someday realize that free software is free information is free speech. The sooner they realize this, the less resistance they will meet when they demand their freedom.