RMS: Free as in Freedom

Just finished Sam William's book, Free as in Freedom on Richard Stallman. Read it in a few days, which is pretty good for me anymore, as I usually don't take the time to read. Having read Hackers, I thought it was a great read. More insight into "the last true hacker" - which fits the hacker mold out of which he grew. Also some great insights into the "free software" movement. And a cool thing is that the entire book is on-line, and supports reader comments on errors, etc.

It seems to me an alternate approach would be to "publish" it as a series of wiki pages, offering faster updates - but I don't know all the issues associated with publishing a book in that manner. In any case, cool stuff.

I suggest that anyone reading this, that is a hacker or developer and wants some insights, should take a look at it - again, especailly since it is reproduced entirely online.

As a personal side note - I am more involved in the "open source" movement than the "free software / gpl" movement. Although my understanding from the book is that they are close to the same. The issue is that, in working for corporate america, the corporate charges for its software, and we can't give it away, disclose it to anyone, etc. etc. So - we can't use GPL software, because it requires that we give our software away as well. (in a nutshell - again, my understanding). However, "open source" software usually has a license that is along the lines of "use this if you want - resell it as part of your stuff if you want. You can send fixes back to us, or not." Which in general allows us to "comprimise" (according to RMS) and meet our company binding terms (what we can do as employees of the company), but at the same time turn in patches, help contribute to the open source software, without being under any obligation to contribute "our" software.

This has worked well for years - CLIPS being a prime example. We use CLIPS - and from time to time I'm a member of the CLIPS community, offering suggestions, providing bug fixes, requesting enhancements, etc. A win-win - from the "useful" point of view.

Anyway, interesting stuff. I find it always good to read this kind of stuff. It connects me to the "community" at large.