Z:gnu-www-ja-rieti--c6671c-Free software is a method, a d/en

Free software is a method, a democratic method, for deciding the development of software. But it is democratic in an unusual way, because we do not hold an election and then tell everybody what to do. Nobody tells people what to do in the free software community; everybody makes his own decision. But what happens is this: If many people want the software to improve in that direction, many people will work on changing it, so the software will develop rapidly in that direction. If a few people want the software to develop in that direction, a few of them will make an effort, so it will develop slowly in that direction. If nobody wants it to develop in that direction, it will not. By each of us deciding what we are going to do, we all contribute to what happens and to deciding which direction the software will develop.