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+Generator: 'texi2html 1.82'
+description: Untitled Document
+distribution: global
+keywords: Untitled Document
+resource-type: document
+title: Untitled Document
+...
+
+1. Overcoming Social Inertia {#overcoming-social-inertia .chapter}
+============================
+
+@firstcopyingnotice{{Copyright © 2007, 2009 Richard Stallman\
+ {This essay was originally published on <http://gnu.org>, in 2007. This
+version is part of @fsfsthreecite} Almost two decades have passed since
+the combination of GNU and Linux first made it possible to use a PC in
+freedom. We have come a long way since then. Now you can even buy a
+laptop with GNU/Linux preinstalled from more than one hardware
+vendor—although the systems they ship are not entirely free software. So
+what holds us back from total success?
+
+The main obstacle to the triumph of software freedom is social inertia.
+It exists in many forms, and you have surely seen some of them. Examples
+include devices that only work on Windows and commercial web sites
+accessible only with Windows. If you value short-term convenience
+instead of freedom, you might consider these reason enough to use
+Windows. Most companies currently run Windows, so students who think
+short-term want to learn how to use it and ask their schools to teach
+it. Schools teach Windows, produce graduates that are used to using
+Windows, and this encourages businesses to use Windows.
+
+Microsoft actively nurtures this inertia: it encourages schools to
+inculcate dependency on Windows, and contracts to set up web sites that
+then turn out to work only with Internet Explorer.
+
+A few years ago, Microsoft ads argued that Windows was cheaper to run
+than GNU/Linux. Their comparisons were debunked, but it is worth noting
+the deeper flaw in their argument, the implicit premise which cites a
+form of social inertia: “Currently, more technical people know Windows
+than GNU/Linux.” People who value their freedom would not give it up to
+save money, but many business executives believe ideologically that
+everything they possess, even their freedom, should be for sale.
+
+Social inertia consists of people who have given in to social inertia.
+When you surrender to social inertia, you become part of the pressure it
+exerts on others; when you resist it, you reduce it. We conquer social
+inertia by identifying it, and resolving not to be part of it.
+
+Here a weakness holds our community back: most GNU/Linux users have
+never even heard the ideas of freedom that motivated the development of
+GNU, so they still judge matters based on short-term convenience rather
+than on their freedom. This makes them vulnerable to being led by the
+nose by social inertia, so that they become part of the inertia.
+
+To build our community’s strength to resist, we need to talk about free
+software and freedom—not merely about the practical benefits that open
+source supporters cite. As more people recognize what they need to do to
+overcome the inertia, we will make more progress.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+This document was generated by *tonghuix* on *March 25, 2016* using
+[*texi2html 1.82*](http://www.nongnu.org/texi2html/).\