RMS on Proprietary Software on Free OSs

The one and only Richard M. Stallman wrote in to clarify his views on Proprietary Software running on free OSs. Hit the link below to read his statement on the subject.

The following is written by Richard M. Stallman

I'd like to clear up a misunderstanding about my views on the issue of proprietary software running on free operating systems, by distingushing two separate questions:

1. Is it a good thing?
2. Would prohibiting it be a good thing?

Sometimes it is counterproductive to prohibit something, even though the thing itself is wrong. I think that's the case here.

If the GNU C library were released under the ordinary GPL instead of the LGPL, that would prohibit proprietary applications for GNU/Linux systems (all use some version of the GNU C Library, perhaps modified). So the question is, which strategy would be better for the free software movement? Which would lead to more free software development, more densely covering a broader range of tasks, in the long term?

This question is academic today, since the decision was made years ago, and practically speaking we couldn't change it now. But it seems to me that permitting proprietary applications has led to more free software development. It has probably made GNU/Linux systems more popular, and that has probably led to a lot more development of free applications; meanwhile, it has probably done little (so far!) to encourage making applications proprietary, because people who want to do that would not have hesitated to host them exclusively on other operating systems.

This doesn't mean that proprietary applications are a good thing. People deserve the freedom to share; software should be free. Now that free operating systems give you the possibility of using a computer with free software exclusively, it would be a shame to retreat from freedom by installing some proprietary software.

PS: Strategic choices depend on the magnitude of various pros and cons, and all sorts of details can affect them. Two analogous situations can call for different strategies. That's why it is better to use the GNU Library GPL for some libraries, and better to use the ordinary GPL for other libraries, to limit them to free software only.