Yesterday was Independence Day here in the United States. It was a day to celebrate our independence from England, a day to celebrate the freedoms we citizens generally enjoy. July 4th, 2007 also fell just a few short days after the Free Software Foundation released the third version of the GNU General Public License - a document that seeks to ensure the freedom of software users everywhere.

It was a day to celebrate our Declaration of Independence, the document that declares our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That Declaration is an interesting document indeed. It lays the foundation for our Constitution. The Constitution only guarantees, promises, protects the freedoms it grants. For example, although we have the freedom to become healthy, wealthy and wise, we also have the freedom to be poor, dumb and downright ignorant.

That's right. The United States Constitution does not guarantee, promise or protect my poverty or my wealth. It has no force to make me become wealthy. Nor has it any force to make me become poor. All the Constitution can do is guarantee an opportunity - it is up to me to decide how to use the opportunity I have. It can only ensure that I do have my right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The GNU Manifesto is essentially the Free Software Movement's declaration of independence. It sets forth the foundation upon which to build the GNU General Public License. It explains why software should be free - namely that people derive the greatest benefit from the software when it is free of restrictions on its use. Likewise, the GNU GPL actually provides the framework to ensure all of us can derive the maximum benefit from our software.

Like our Constitution, the GNU GPL is limited in scope. It does not promise to improve the quality of the software - even if that frequently is a side effect of the four fundamental freedoms. And while it empowers users to become developers, it does not promise that they will. The GPL promises you the freedom to control your computer systems; whether you have the ability to take advantage of that freedom is another matter entirely. Hey, you even have the freedom to pay people to help you control your systems. Whether you have the money to do so is another question.

Interestingly, here in the U.S. one group of people attempted to prevent another group of people from enjoying their freedom. For the better part of two centuries, some people in the Land of the Free could not experience freedom. Then, when they finally were liberated, they often found themselves facing new challenges. Similarly, some software developers have been depriving their users of the freedom to use the software as they see fit and to control that software. So people who have never experienced software freedom find themselves facing new challenges.

For example, computer users discovering Free Software may find themselves having to choose between a variety of operating system distributions, desktop environments (or graphical shells, if you prefer), and then comes the onslaught of productivity applications. Learning the differences between all these, as well as how to use them can be a daunting task for some people. And then there are new system administration skills to learn.

Learning how to handle freedom, whether civil or software, is no small task. Still, I have yet to hear of anyone, having tasted of their civil freedom, who ever went back. Oh sure, some former slave hands stayed on with their masters, either out of some weird sense of loyalty or out of fear of facing freedom, not knowing how to handle their newfound freedom. Still, when was the last time anyone ever asked you to become their master? Have you ever offered to become someone's slave? And no, love slaves doesn't count.

It took me a while to learn that Free Software was not about making sure I could get a free copy of a program, but about making sure I could use the program anyway I wanted, and that I could share it with others, if I was so inclined. No more than I can imagine Harriet Tubman not helping others to become free, or Rosa Parks timidly sitting at the back of the bus, or John Brown quietly acquiescing to pro-slavery supporters in Kansas, can I imagine myself agreeing that it is o.k. to restrict the freedom of software users. No more than I can imagine black Americans marching in Atlanta to restore slavery can I see myself going back to non-free software. I have come too far.

So American independence is not the only thing I celebrated yesterday. I also celebrated my software freedom. I celebrated the latest version of the GNU General Public License because it promises me so much more than non-free software can promise. It doesn't guarantee I'll become a hacker, but it does afford me the opportunity - and that is far more than I had before. Yes indeed, freedom is a thing to celebrate.