Can You Trust Your Computer? - GNU Project - Free...
Rated • 22 reviews • open source • gnu.org
This was written in 2002. The situation is now a lot more frightening. If you use Windows whilst online I suggest you download the Comodo firewall, enable Defence+ and select "Paranoid" mode to find out just how often software on your machine is connecting to the internet, modifying "protected" registry keys and demanding independent access to hardware. I'm not just talking Windows Update or checks on your Media Library for pirated files here. You''ve got notepad open for well, making notes, do you need it to access the internet without asking first - Microsoft seem to think so.
Freedom to view and modify source code means the right to access the part of software on a machine which is human readable as opposed to the binaries compiled from this which are a mass of ones and zeros readable only by a machine. OK, the majority of computer users cannot read source code, but some can and this means that Free Software has to do what it says on the tin. I'll never have the technical knowledge of people like Richard Stallman who wrote this article, but the fact that these people exist protects us all.
Freedom to view and modify source code means the right to access the part of software on a machine which is human readable as opposed to the binaries compiled from this which are a mass of ones and zeros readable only by a machine. OK, the majority of computer users cannot read source code, but some can and this means that Free Software has to do what it says on the tin. I'll never have the technical knowledge of people like Richard Stallman who wrote this article, but the fact that these people exist protects us all.
