Re: "Freedom" is really the wrong word

[Jean Louis]

On November 4, 2021 5:06:44 PM UTC, dick <dick.r.chiang@gmail.com> wrote:
>> There is nothing insidious with such a paint
>
>And yet, free software rhetoric emphatically characterizes nonfree as
>"causing
>harm in a way that is gradual or not easily noticed," which is
>Merriam-Webster's
>definition of "insidious."

I remember 1999 how proprietary software caused me damages. They have been 
promising stable system, I got system unstable, freezing, losing thousands of 
German marks in Internet expenses when I was indexing websites. Imagine you 
spend 500 marks, then system get frozen, then you try again, but again it 
freeze. That is true practical damage on my side, which I could not repair or 
participate in improving. I called Microsoft in Munich and they did not want to 
know about it.

Before the installation, system did not even work as promised. I had compatible 
computer, but it did not work. When I called them, they gave me secret codes to 
enter and then system could be installed. It was secret code related to my 
specific PS/2 computer, not anywhere explained online or in instructions.

The time and effort that I have put into making the system running, and trying 
to solve freezing issues are practical damage examples caused by Windoze.

Another example from last year is mobile application Safe Boda in Uganda, when 
I wanted to use option to share credit to friend, it just took all my contacts 
from address book, to which I have not consented. 

There are so many other documented examples of abuses by Facebook, WhatsApp, 
Google applications and their corrupted staff taking information from users.