This is a fantastic essay. I appreciate Stallman's work, but I find myself much more aligned with the likes of the OSI or Apache Foundation than the FSF. It is refreshing to see Stallman's philosophy intelligently challenged.
One rather large supporting argument the author overlooked: Stallman/FSF have appeared to largely reverse their stance on open standards; his/their views on OOXML and C# are incomprehensible to me. We could argue the technical advantages of ODF vs. OOXML all day, but the total sum of the philosophical difference between the two is zero.
I believe that the FSF's stance on the OOXML standard is that the standard is so unwieldy, obfuscated, and incomplete that it is infeasible for any group but Microsoft to implement it, and that that deliberate infeasibility is sufficient reason to exclude OOXML from being ratified as an ISO standard.
One rather large supporting argument the author overlooked: Stallman/FSF have appeared to largely reverse their stance on open standards; his/their views on OOXML and C# are incomprehensible to me. We could argue the technical advantages of ODF vs. OOXML all day, but the total sum of the philosophical difference between the two is zero.