Z:gnu-www-ja-rms-nyu-2001-transcript--3622ee-So for those reasons, I decide/en

So for those reasons, I decided to look for some other alternative. What can an operating system developer do that would actually improve the situation, make the world a better place? And I realized that an operating system developer was exactly what was needed. The problem, the dilemma, existed for me and for everyone else because all of the available operating systems for modern computers were proprietary. The free operating systems were for old, obsolete computers, right? So for the modern computers &mdash; if you wanted to get a modern computer and use it, you were forced into a proprietary operating system. So if an operating system developer wrote another operating system, and then said, &ldquo;Everybody come and share this; you're welcome to this&rdquo; &mdash; that would give everybody a way out of the dilemma, another alternative. So I realized that there was something I could do that would solve the problem. I had just the right skills to be able to do it. And it was the most useful thing I could possibly imagine that I'd be able to do with my life. And it was a problem that no one else was trying to solve. It was just sort of sitting there, getting worse, and nobody was there but me. So I felt, &ldquo;I'm elected. I have to work on this. If not me, who?&rdquo; So I decided I would develop a free operating system, or die trying &hellip; of old age, of course. [Laughter]