Book description
Free as in Freedom interweaves biographical snapshots of GNU project founder Richard Stallman with the political, social and economic history of the free software movement. It examines Stallman's unique personality and how that personality has been at turns a driving force and a drawback in terms of the movement's overall success.Free as in Freedom examines one man's 20-year attempt to codify and communicate the ethics of 1970s era "hacking" culture in such a way that later generations might easily share and build upon the knowledge of their computing forebears. The book documents Stallman's personal evolution from teenage misfit to prescient adult hacker to political leader and examines how that evolution has shaped the free software movement. Like Alan Greenspan in the financial sector, Richard Stallman has assumed the role of tribal elder within the hacking community, a community that bills itself as anarchic and averse to central leadership or authority. How did this paradox come about? Free as in Freedom provides an answer. It also looks at how the latest twists and turns in the software marketplace have diminished Stallman's leadership role in some areas while augmenting it in others.Finally, Free as in Freedom examines both Stallman and the free software movement from historical viewpoint. Will future generations see Stallman as a genius or crackpot? The answer to that question depends partly on which side of the free software debate the reader currently stands and partly upon the reader's own outlook for the future. 100 years from now, when terms such as "computer," "operating system" and perhaps even "software" itself seem hopelessly quaint, will Richard Stallman's particular vision of freedom still resonate, or will it have taken its place alongside other utopian concepts on the 'ash-heap of history?'
Publisher resources
Table of contents
-
Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman’s Crusade for Free Software
- SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O’Reilly
- Preface
- 1. For Want of a Printer
- 2. 2001: A Hacker’s Odyssey
- 3. A Portrait of the Hacker as a Young Man
- 4. Impeach God
- 5. Small Puddle of Freedom
- 6. The Emacs Commune
- 7. A Stark Moral Choice
- 8. St. Ignucius
- 9. The GNU General Public License
- 10. GNU/Linux
- 11. Open Source
- 12. A Brief Journey Through Hacker Hell
- 13. Continuing the Fight
- A. Epilogue: Crushing Loneliness
- B. Terminology
- C. Hack, Hackers, and Hacking
-
D. GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)
- 0. Preamble
- 1. Applicability and Definitions
- 2. Verbatim Copying
- 3. Copying in Quantity
- 4. Modifications
- 5. Combining Documents
- 6. Collections of Documents
- 7. Aggregation with Independent Works
- 8. Translation
- 9. Termination
- 10. Future Revisions of This License
- ADDENDUM: How to Use This License for Your Documents
- Index
- About the Author
- Colophon
- SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O’Reilly
Product information
- Title: Free as in Freedom [Paperback]
- Author(s):
- Release date: March 2002
- Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
- ISBN: 9781449323363
You might also like
article
Have ChatGPT Ask You Questions
ChatGPT Shortcuts shows future prompt engineers how to harness the full potential of the state-of-the-art AI …
video
GenAI Essentials for Everyone - Overview
Our team of experts has hand-selected and organized the most crucial concepts and practical applications of …
article
Why the Power of Technology Rarely Goes to the People
Throughout history, the advantages and costs of technological innovations have been unevenly distributed between the powerful …
article
Use GitHub Copilot: Additional Tips
Using GitHub Copilot can feel like magic. The tool automatically fills out entire blocks of code--but …