October 22, 2023
This book is a biography of Richard Stallman's, mostly focused on his work on Free Software. It's given me some insights into the early days of the GNU project, along with important context of what was happening during the raise of the Linux kernel.
The book is written in 2002, so it does not include a lot of the most recent polemical events around Richard Stallman's opinions on various subjects.
Here are some interesting quotes I've taken from the book:
When it comes to copyrighted works, Stallman says he divides the world into three categories. The first category involves "functional" works. E.g., software programs, dictionaries, and textbooks. The second category involves works that might be best described as "testimonial" e.g., scientific papers and historical documents. Such works serve a purpose that would be undermined if subsequent readers or authors were free to modify the work a will. The final category involves works of personal expression e.g., diaries, journals, and autobiographies. To modify such documents would be to alter a person's recollections or point of view. Stallman considers ethically unjustifiable. Of the tree categories, the first should give users the unlimited right to make modified versions, while the second and third should regulate that right according to the will of the original author. Regardless of category, however, the freedom to copy and redistribute non-commercially should remain unabridged at all times. Stallman insists. If that means giving the internet users the right to generate a hundred copies of an article, image, song, or book, and then email the copies to a hundred strangers, so be it. "It's clear that private occasional redistribution must be permitted, because only a police state can stop that." Stallman says. "It's antisocial to come between people and their friends. Napster has convinced me that we also need to permit, must permit, even non-commercial redistribution to the public for the fun of it. Because so many people want to do that and find it so useful.".
Today's internet companies use patents as a way to stake out individual applications and business models, the most notorious example being Amazon.com's 2000 attempt to patent the company's "one-click" online shopping process.
Emacs was initially a text editor, Says Stallman. Eventually it became a way of life for many and a religion for some. We call this religion the Church of Emacs.
Eric Raymond, an early member of the GNU Emacs team and later Stallman critic, says the problem was largely institutional. "The FSF got arrogant", Raymond says. "They moved away from the goal of doing a production-ready operating system to doing operating-system research".
Summarised Raymond, "I think Linu's cleverest and most consequential hack was not the construction of the Linux kernel itself, but rather his invention of the Linux development model.