1. Why Schools Should Exclusively Use Free Software {#why-schools-should-exclusively-use-freesoftware .chapter} =================================================== 为什么学校应该只使用自由软件 ============= > Copyright © 2003, 2009, 2014 Richard Stallman 此文最早于2003年发布在 。 参考中译 JODOO 2015年10月，略有改动 Educational activities (including schools) have a moral duty to teach only free software. 教育活动（包括学校里的），有道义责任只教授自由软件。 All computer users ought to insist on free software: it gives users the freedom to control their own computers—with proprietary software, the program does what its owner or developer wants it to do, not what the user wants it to do. Free software also gives users the freedom to cooperate with each other, to lead an upright life. These reasons apply to schools as they do to everyone. However, the purpose of this article is to present the additional reasons that apply specifically to education. 所有计算机用户都应该坚持使用自由软件：你会获得控制你计算机的权利。而专有软件，更愿意做其拥有者或开发者想要做的事情，而不是用户想让它们做的事情。自由软件还会赋予用户自由协作的权利，这将会引领一种积极向上的生活方式。这些理由适用于学校，而且也适用于每个人。但是，本文的目的不仅限于此，还会讲到专门适用于教育的特殊原因。 Free software can save schools money, but this is a secondary benefit. Savings are possible because free software gives schools, like other users, the freedom to copy and redistribute the software; the school system can give a copy to every school, and each school can install the program in all its computers, with no obligation to pay for doing so. 自由软件帮助学校节省资金只是一个附带好处。节省资金是因为自由软件赋予学校，如同赋予其他个人用户那样，自由复制和分发软件的权利。教育系统可以给每一所学校一份副本，而且每一所学校都可以将其安装在学校的每一台电脑上，这样做无需任何直接花费。 This benefit is useful, but we firmly refuse to give it first place, because it is shallow compared to the important ethical issues at stake. Moving schools to free software is more than a way to make education a little “better”: it is a matter of doing good education instead of bad education. So let’s consider the deeper issues. 尽管这项好处很有用，但我们坚定地拒绝将其置于首位，因为这样做的风险和道义层面的重要性问题相比，似乎显得微不足道。推动学校使用自由软件，不只是让教育变得稍微“好一点”的一个方法，也是一件关乎“好教育”还是“坏教育”的大事。所以，我们来探讨一下这个更深层次的问题。 Schools have a social mission: to teach students to be citizens of a strong, capable, independent, cooperating and free society. They should promote the use of free software just as they promote conservation and voting. By teaching students free software, they can graduate citizens ready to live in a free digital society. This will help society as a whole escape from being dominated by megacorporations. 学校有一项社会使命：教育学生成为一个坚强、有才能，独立、相互协作并且自由的社会中的一名公民。学校应该像推广保育和选举一样推广自由软件的使用。通过教授自由软件，学生能成为自由的数字化时代的合格公民。这项工作能帮助社会从整体上脱离大集团公司的统治。 In contrast, to teach a nonfree program is implanting dependence, which goes counter to the schools’ social mission. Schools should never do this. 相比之下，如果我们教学生使用非自由软件，就等同于培养依赖性，这将违背学校的社会使命，学校应该极力避免这种事情的发生。 Why, after all, do some proprietary software developers offer gratis copies of their nonfree programs to schools? Because they want to *use* the schools to implant dependence on their products, like tobacco companies distributing gratis cigarettes to school children.[(1)](#FOOT1) 为什么呢？毕竟一些专有软件开发者可以免费给学校的提供非自由程序的副本。那是因为，就像烟草公司免费向学生发放香烟一样，他们希望*利用*学校给学生灌输这种对他们产品的依赖性[^1]。 They will not give gratis copies to these students once they’ve graduated, nor to the companies that they go to work for. Once you’re dependent, you’re expected to pay, and future upgrades may be expensive. 当学生毕业之后，他们就会终止这种免费行为，而且，他们也不会为毕业生就职的公司或机构提供免费服务。你一旦对这些软件形成了依赖，你很可能就会付费，并且之后的升级可能会很昂贵。 Free software permits students to learn how software works. Some students, natural-born programmers, on reaching their teens yearn to learn everything there is to know about their computer and its software. They are intensely curious to read the source code of the programs that they use every day. 自由软件可以让学生了解和掌握这些软件的工作原理。有些学生，或者那些天才程序员，青少年时代就对计算机和软件充满好奇心，他们急切地想要获知他们想要知道的一切。他们非常渴望阅读那些他们每天都在使用的软件的源代码。 Proprietary software rejects their thirst for knowledge: it says, “The knowledge you want is a secret—learning is forbidden!” Proprietary software is the enemy of the spirit of education, so it should not be tolerated in a school, except as an object for reverse engineering. 专有软件抑制和阻碍了学生对知识的渴望：他们被告知，“你想要获得的知识是一个秘密，禁止学习！” 专有软件是教育精神的敌人，所以，除非作为反向工程的目的，学校应该拒绝使用它们。 Free software encourages everyone to learn. The free software community rejects the “priesthood of technology,” which keeps the general public in ignorance of how technology works; we encourage students of any age and situation to read the source code and learn as much as they want to know. 自由软件鼓励每个人学习。自由软件社区反对“高高在上的技术”——这会让大众对技术的基本原理敬而远之。我们鼓励任何年龄层次学生或个人阅读源代码，而且，我们希望他们学的越多越好。 Schools that use free software will enable gifted programming students to advance. How do natural-born programmers learn to be good programmers? They need to read and understand real programs that people really use. You learn to write good, clear code by reading lots of code and writing lots of code. Only free software permits this. 使用自由软件的学校将会成为那些喜爱编程学生的乐土。你知道喜欢编程的学生是怎样成为优秀的程序员的吗？他们必须要阅读和理解人们真实使用的软件的源代码。通过阅读和编写大量的代码，你才有可能写出高质量清晰的计算机程序。目前来看，只有自由软件允许你这样做。 How do you learn to write code for large programs? You do that by writing lots of changes in existing large programs. Free Software lets you do this; proprietary software forbids this. Any school can offer its students the chance to master the craft of programming, but only if it is a free software school. 如何学习为大型软件项目编写代码？最好的办法就是为现有的大型项目编写大量代码。自由软件鼓励你这样做，但专有软件会禁止如此。任何学校都可以给学生提供这种掌握编程技术的机会，但只有使用自由软件的学校才真正有这个可能。 The deepest reason for using free software in schools is for moral education. We expect schools to teach students basic facts and useful skills, but that is only part of their job. The most fundamental task of schools is to teach good citizenship, including the habit of helping others. In the area of computing, this means teaching people to share software. Schools, starting from nursery school, should tell their students, “If you bring software to school, you must share it with the other students. You must show the source code to the class, in case someone wants to learn. Therefore bringing nonfree software to class is not permitted, unless it is for reverse-engineering work.” 学校使用自由软件最深层次原因是可以进行德育教育。我们希望学校教给学生基本的知识和有用的技巧，但是这只是学校工作的一部分。学校最重要的一项职能，就是培养好公民——其中包括助人为乐的习惯。在计算机领域，这就意味着我们需要教授学生分享软件的精神。从幼儿园开始，学校就应该告诉学生，“如果你把软件带到学校来，你应该与其他同学一起分享。万一有人想要学习一下它的工作原理，你应该把源代码展示给大家。所以说，非自由软件最好不要带到学校来，除非出于反向工程的目的。” Of course, the school must practice what it preaches: it should bring only free software to class (except objects for reverse-engineering), and share copies including source code with the students so they can copy it, take it home, and redistribute it further. 当然，学校必须履行其诺言：在课堂上只允许自由软件出现（除非为了反向工程的目的），在分享软件的同时，源代码也应该一并分享，这样的话，学生们就能复制它们，把它们带回家，甚至还可以将它们再次分享给其他人。 Teaching the students to use free software, and to participate in the free software community, is a hands-on civics lesson. It also teaches students the role model of public service rather than that of tycoons. All levels of school should use free software. 教授学生使用自由软件，让他们参与自由软件社区，就是一门生动鲜活的公民教育课程。这门课程教授将会把学生培养成为具有公共服务精神的行为模范，而不是垄断企业的超级大亨。所有学校都应该使用自由软件。 If you have a relationship with a school—if you are a student, a teacher, an employee, an administrator, a donor, or a parent—it’s your responsibility to campaign for the school to migrate to free software. If a private request doesn’t achieve the goal, raise the issue publicly in those communities; that is the way to make more people aware of the issue and find allies for the campaign. 如果你和学校有一定联系——如果你是一名学生、一名教师、一位员工、一名管理者、一位捐赠人，或者这些人的父母——你有义务和责任向学校推广自由软件。如果私人请求无法解决这个问题，可将这个问题公开出来提交到社区。这样就能让更多的人意识到这件事情的重要性。你可以寻找同盟，让大家一起发起这项推广自由软件的运动。 ### [(1)](#DOCF1) @raggedright RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company was fined \$15m in 2002 for handing out free samples of cigarettes at events attended by children. See . @end raggedright [^1]: 参见 《雷诺烟草公司因向儿童发放卷烟样品，于2002年被罚1500万美元》[RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company was fined \$15m in 2002 for handing out free samples of cigarettes at events attended by children](http://bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sci_tech/features/health/tobaccotrial/usa.htm)