Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/04/netservices-source-culture.html

So often, a particular strategy becomes dogma. Copyleft licensing
constantly allures us in this manner. Every long-term software freedom
advocate I have ever known — myself included — has spent
periods of time slipping on the comfortable shoes of belief that
copyleft is the central catalyst for software freedom.

Copyleft indeed remains a successful strategy in maximizing software
freedom because it backs up a community consensus on software sharing
with the protection of the law. However, most people do not comply
with the GPL merely because they fear the consequences of copyright
infringement. Rather, they comply for altruistic reasons: because it
advances their own freedom and the freedom of the people around
them.

Indeed, it is so important to remember that many of the FLOSS
programs we use every day are not copylefted, and do not actually have
any long-term proprietary forks (for me, Subversion, Trac and Twisted come to mind quickly).
Examples like this helped me to again re-eradicate some clouded
thinking about copyleft as central tenant.

With this mindset fresh, Mike Linksvayer and I had an excellent
discussion last month that solidified this connection to network
services, and specifically, the licenses for network services software.
Many GPL’d network service software give no source to users, but that
may have little to do with the authors’ “failure to
upgrade” to the AGPL. In other words, the non-source
availability of network service applications that are otherwise licensed
in freedom is probably unrelated to the lack of network-freedom
provisions in the license.

In fact, more likely, the network service world now mimics the early
days of the BSD licenses. Deployers are “proprietarizing”
by default merely because there is no social effect to encourage
release of modified source. Often, they likely
haven’t considered the complex issues of network service freedom, and
are following the common existing practices. Advent of the GPL
did help encourage software sharing in the community, but the
general change in social standards that accompanied the GPL probably had
a more substantial impact.

Therefore, improved social standards will help improve source sharing
in network services. We need to encourage, and more importantly,
make it easy for network service deployers to make source of
network applications available, regardless of their particular FLOSS
license. No existing non-AGPL FLOSS licenses
prohibit making the source available to network
users. Network providers can and should simply do it voluntarily out
of respect for their users. Developers of network service software,
even if they do not choose the AGPL, should make it easy for the
deployers to give source to their users. I hope to assist in this
regard more directly before the end of 2008.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/04/netservices-source-culture.html

So often, a particular strategy becomes dogma. Copyleft licensing
constantly allures us in this manner. Every long-term software freedom
advocate I have ever known — myself included — has spent
periods of time slipping on the comfortable shoes of belief that
copyleft is the central catalyst for software freedom.

Copyleft indeed remains a successful strategy in maximizing software
freedom because it backs up a community consensus on software sharing
with the protection of the law. However, most people do not comply
with the GPL merely because they fear the consequences of copyright
infringement. Rather, they comply for altruistic reasons: because it
advances their own freedom and the freedom of the people around
them.

Indeed, it is so important to remember that many of the FLOSS
programs we use every day are not copylefted, and do not actually have
any long-term proprietary forks (for me, Subversion, Trac and Twisted come to mind quickly).
Examples like this helped me to again re-eradicate some clouded
thinking about copyleft as central tenant.

With this mindset fresh, Mike Linksvayer and I had an excellent
discussion last month that solidified this connection to network
services, and specifically, the licenses for network services software.
Many GPL’d network service software give no source to users, but that
may have little to do with the authors’ “failure to
upgrade” to the AGPL. In other words, the non-source
availability of network service applications that are otherwise licensed
in freedom is probably unrelated to the lack of network-freedom
provisions in the license.

In fact, more likely, the network service world now mimics the early
days of the BSD licenses. Deployers are “proprietarizing”
by default merely because there is no social effect to encourage
release of modified source. Often, they likely
haven’t considered the complex issues of network service freedom, and
are following the common existing practices. Advent of the GPL
did help encourage software sharing in the community, but the
general change in social standards that accompanied the GPL probably had
a more substantial impact.

Therefore, improved social standards will help improve source sharing
in network services. We need to encourage, and more importantly,
make it easy for network service deployers to make source of
network applications available, regardless of their particular FLOSS
license. No existing non-AGPL FLOSS licenses
prohibit making the source available to network
users. Network providers can and should simply do it voluntarily out
of respect for their users. Developers of network service software,
even if they do not choose the AGPL, should make it easy for the
deployers to give source to their users. I hope to assist in this
regard more directly before the end of 2008.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/04/netservices-source-culture.html

So often, a particular strategy becomes dogma. Copyleft licensing
constantly allures us in this manner. Every long-term software freedom
advocate I have ever known — myself included — has spent
periods of time slipping on the comfortable shoes of belief that
copyleft is the central catalyst for software freedom.

Copyleft indeed remains a successful strategy in maximizing software
freedom because it backs up a community consensus on software sharing
with the protection of the law. However, most people do not comply
with the GPL merely because they fear the consequences of copyright
infringement. Rather, they comply for altruistic reasons: because it
advances their own freedom and the freedom of the people around
them.

Indeed, it is so important to remember that many of the FLOSS
programs we use every day are not copylefted, and do not actually have
any long-term proprietary forks (for me, Subversion, Trac and Twisted come to mind quickly).
Examples like this helped me to again re-eradicate some clouded
thinking about copyleft as central tenant.

With this mindset fresh, Mike Linksvayer and I had an excellent
discussion last month that solidified this connection to network
services, and specifically, the licenses for network services software.
Many GPL’d network service software give no source to users, but that
may have little to do with the authors’ “failure to
upgrade” to the AGPL. In other words, the non-source
availability of network service applications that are otherwise licensed
in freedom is probably unrelated to the lack of network-freedom
provisions in the license.

In fact, more likely, the network service world now mimics the early
days of the BSD licenses. Deployers are “proprietarizing”
by default merely because there is no social effect to encourage
release of modified source. Often, they likely
haven’t considered the complex issues of network service freedom, and
are following the common existing practices. Advent of the GPL
did help encourage software sharing in the community, but the
general change in social standards that accompanied the GPL probably had
a more substantial impact.

Therefore, improved social standards will help improve source sharing
in network services. We need to encourage, and more importantly,
make it easy for network service deployers to make source of
network applications available, regardless of their particular FLOSS
license. No existing non-AGPL FLOSS licenses
prohibit making the source available to network
users. Network providers can and should simply do it voluntarily out
of respect for their users. Developers of network service software,
even if they do not choose the AGPL, should make it easy for the
deployers to give source to their users. I hope to assist in this
regard more directly before the end of 2008.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/04/netservices-source-culture.html

So often, a particular strategy becomes dogma. Copyleft licensing
constantly allures us in this manner. Every long-term software freedom
advocate I have ever known — myself included — has spent
periods of time slipping on the comfortable shoes of belief that
copyleft is the central catalyst for software freedom.

Copyleft indeed remains a successful strategy in maximizing software
freedom because it backs up a community consensus on software sharing
with the protection of the law. However, most people do not comply
with the GPL merely because they fear the consequences of copyright
infringement. Rather, they comply for altruistic reasons: because it
advances their own freedom and the freedom of the people around
them.

Indeed, it is so important to remember that many of the FLOSS
programs we use every day are not copylefted, and do not actually have
any long-term proprietary forks (for me, Subversion, Trac and Twisted come to mind quickly).
Examples like this helped me to again re-eradicate some clouded
thinking about copyleft as central tenant.

With this mindset fresh, Mike Linksvayer and I had an excellent
discussion last month that solidified this connection to network
services, and specifically, the licenses for network services software.
Many GPL’d network service software give no source to users, but that
may have little to do with the authors’ “failure to
upgrade” to the AGPL. In other words, the non-source
availability of network service applications that are otherwise licensed
in freedom is probably unrelated to the lack of network-freedom
provisions in the license.

In fact, more likely, the network service world now mimics the early
days of the BSD licenses. Deployers are “proprietarizing”
by default merely because there is no social effect to encourage
release of modified source. Often, they likely
haven’t considered the complex issues of network service freedom, and
are following the common existing practices. Advent of the GPL
did help encourage software sharing in the community, but the
general change in social standards that accompanied the GPL probably had
a more substantial impact.

Therefore, improved social standards will help improve source sharing
in network services. We need to encourage, and more importantly,
make it easy for network service deployers to make source of
network applications available, regardless of their particular FLOSS
license. No existing non-AGPL FLOSS licenses
prohibit making the source available to network
users. Network providers can and should simply do it voluntarily out
of respect for their users. Developers of network service software,
even if they do not choose the AGPL, should make it easy for the
deployers to give source to their users. I hope to assist in this
regard more directly before the end of 2008.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/04/netservices-source-culture.html

So often, a particular strategy becomes dogma. Copyleft licensing
constantly allures us in this manner. Every long-term software freedom
advocate I have ever known — myself included — has spent
periods of time slipping on the comfortable shoes of belief that
copyleft is the central catalyst for software freedom.

Copyleft indeed remains a successful strategy in maximizing software
freedom because it backs up a community consensus on software sharing
with the protection of the law. However, most people do not comply
with the GPL merely because they fear the consequences of copyright
infringement. Rather, they comply for altruistic reasons: because it
advances their own freedom and the freedom of the people around
them.

Indeed, it is so important to remember that many of the FLOSS
programs we use every day are not copylefted, and do not actually have
any long-term proprietary forks (for me, Subversion, Trac and Twisted come to mind quickly).
Examples like this helped me to again re-eradicate some clouded
thinking about copyleft as central tenant.

With this mindset fresh, Mike Linksvayer and I had an excellent
discussion last month that solidified this connection to network
services, and specifically, the licenses for network services software.
Many GPL’d network service software give no source to users, but that
may have little to do with the authors’ “failure to
upgrade” to the AGPL. In other words, the non-source
availability of network service applications that are otherwise licensed
in freedom is probably unrelated to the lack of network-freedom
provisions in the license.

In fact, more likely, the network service world now mimics the early
days of the BSD licenses. Deployers are “proprietarizing”
by default merely because there is no social effect to encourage
release of modified source. Often, they likely
haven’t considered the complex issues of network service freedom, and
are following the common existing practices. Advent of the GPL
did help encourage software sharing in the community, but the
general change in social standards that accompanied the GPL probably had
a more substantial impact.

Therefore, improved social standards will help improve source sharing
in network services. We need to encourage, and more importantly,
make it easy for network service deployers to make source of
network applications available, regardless of their particular FLOSS
license. No existing non-AGPL FLOSS licenses
prohibit making the source available to network
users. Network providers can and should simply do it voluntarily out
of respect for their users. Developers of network service software,
even if they do not choose the AGPL, should make it easy for the
deployers to give source to their users. I hope to assist in this
regard more directly before the end of 2008.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/02/gnu-birthday.html

Twenty-five years ago this month, I had just gotten my first computer,
a Commodore 64, and was learning the very basics (quite literally) of
programming. Unfortunately for my education, it would be a full eight
years before I’d be permitted to see any source code to a computer
program that I didn’t write myself. I often look back at those eight
years and consider that my most formative years of programming learning were
wasted, since I was not permitted to study the programs written by the
greatest minds.

Fortunately for all the young programmers to come after me, something
else was happening in an office at an MIT building in September 1983
that would make sure everyone would have the freedom to study code, and
the freedom to improve it and contribute to the global library of
software development knowledge. Richard
Stallman announced
that he would start the GNU project, a complete operating system
that would give all its users freedom.

I got involved with Free Software in 1992. At the time, I was the one
student in my university who had ever heard of GNU and the recently
released kernel named Linux. My professors knew of “that Stallman
guy” but were focused primarily on academic research. Fortunately
for me, they nevertheless gave me free reign over the systems to turn
them into what might have been, in late 1992, one of the first Computer
Science labs running entirely Free Software.

Much more has happened since even then. To commemorate all that has
come since Stallman’s announcement, my colleagues at the FSF, home of
the GNU project, released a video for
this historic 25 year anniversary. It took twenty-five years, and a
fight at the BBC over DRM, but now even a famous, accomplished actor
like Stephen Fry
is interested in the work that Stallman began way back in a year when
Michael Jackson was a musical phenomenon and not merely a punchline of a
joke.

These days, I have almost weekly moments of surprise that people
outside of the Software Freedom Movement have actually heard of what I
do for a living. When Matt Lee (whom I got to know when he came up through the
ranks in the 2000’s as I did in the 1990’s as a new FSF volunteer) told
me a few months ago that Stephen Fry had enthusiastically and
immediately agreed to make this video, it was yet another moment of
surprise. We now live in a movement that impacts everyone in the
industrialized world, because nearly everyone who has access to
electricity also must use a computer to interact with daily life. So
many people are impacted by the problems of proprietary software that
Stallman noticed in 1983 impacting his small developer community.
Thanks to the work of thousands, we now have the opportunity to welcome
new groups into a computing world that can give them freedom. I’m happy
that the friendly face of a talented and accomplished entertainer and
world-class actor is here to welcome them.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/02/gnu-birthday.html

Twenty-five years ago this month, I had just gotten my first computer,
a Commodore 64, and was learning the very basics (quite literally) of
programming. Unfortunately for my education, it would be a full eight
years before I’d be permitted to see any source code to a computer
program that I didn’t write myself. I often look back at those eight
years and consider that my most formative years of programming learning were
wasted, since I was not permitted to study the programs written by the
greatest minds.

Fortunately for all the young programmers to come after me, something
else was happening in an office at an MIT building in September 1983
that would make sure everyone would have the freedom to study code, and
the freedom to improve it and contribute to the global library of
software development knowledge. Richard
Stallman announced
that he would start the GNU project, a complete operating system
that would give all its users freedom.

I got involved with Free Software in 1992. At the time, I was the one
student in my university who had ever heard of GNU and the recently
released kernel named Linux. My professors knew of “that Stallman
guy” but were focused primarily on academic research. Fortunately
for me, they nevertheless gave me free reign over the systems to turn
them into what might have been, in late 1992, one of the first Computer
Science labs running entirely Free Software.

Much more has happened since even then. To commemorate all that has
come since Stallman’s announcement, my colleagues at the FSF, home of
the GNU project, released a video for
this historic 25 year anniversary. It took twenty-five years, and a
fight at the BBC over DRM, but now even a famous, accomplished actor
like Stephen Fry
is interested in the work that Stallman began way back in a year when
Michael Jackson was a musical phenomenon and not merely a punchline of a
joke.

These days, I have almost weekly moments of surprise that people
outside of the Software Freedom Movement have actually heard of what I
do for a living. When Matt Lee (whom I got to know when he came up through the
ranks in the 2000’s as I did in the 1990’s as a new FSF volunteer) told
me a few months ago that Stephen Fry had enthusiastically and
immediately agreed to make this video, it was yet another moment of
surprise. We now live in a movement that impacts everyone in the
industrialized world, because nearly everyone who has access to
electricity also must use a computer to interact with daily life. So
many people are impacted by the problems of proprietary software that
Stallman noticed in 1983 impacting his small developer community.
Thanks to the work of thousands, we now have the opportunity to welcome
new groups into a computing world that can give them freedom. I’m happy
that the friendly face of a talented and accomplished entertainer and
world-class actor is here to welcome them.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/02/gnu-birthday.html

Twenty-five years ago this month, I had just gotten my first computer,
a Commodore 64, and was learning the very basics (quite literally) of
programming. Unfortunately for my education, it would be a full eight
years before I’d be permitted to see any source code to a computer
program that I didn’t write myself. I often look back at those eight
years and consider that my most formative years of programming learning were
wasted, since I was not permitted to study the programs written by the
greatest minds.

Fortunately for all the young programmers to come after me, something
else was happening in an office at an MIT building in September 1983
that would make sure everyone would have the freedom to study code, and
the freedom to improve it and contribute to the global library of
software development knowledge. Richard
Stallman announced
that he would start the GNU project, a complete operating system
that would give all its users freedom.

I got involved with Free Software in 1992. At the time, I was the one
student in my university who had ever heard of GNU and the recently
released kernel named Linux. My professors knew of “that Stallman
guy” but were focused primarily on academic research. Fortunately
for me, they nevertheless gave me free reign over the systems to turn
them into what might have been, in late 1992, one of the first Computer
Science labs running entirely Free Software.

Much more has happened since even then. To commemorate all that has
come since Stallman’s announcement, my colleagues at the FSF, home of
the GNU project, released a video for
this historic 25 year anniversary. It took twenty-five years, and a
fight at the BBC over DRM, but now even a famous, accomplished actor
like Stephen Fry
is interested in the work that Stallman began way back in a year when
Michael Jackson was a musical phenomenon and not merely a punchline of a
joke.

These days, I have almost weekly moments of surprise that people
outside of the Software Freedom Movement have actually heard of what I
do for a living. When Matt Lee (whom I got to know when he came up through the
ranks in the 2000’s as I did in the 1990’s as a new FSF volunteer) told
me a few months ago that Stephen Fry had enthusiastically and
immediately agreed to make this video, it was yet another moment of
surprise. We now live in a movement that impacts everyone in the
industrialized world, because nearly everyone who has access to
electricity also must use a computer to interact with daily life. So
many people are impacted by the problems of proprietary software that
Stallman noticed in 1983 impacting his small developer community.
Thanks to the work of thousands, we now have the opportunity to welcome
new groups into a computing world that can give them freedom. I’m happy
that the friendly face of a talented and accomplished entertainer and
world-class actor is here to welcome them.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/02/gnu-birthday.html

Twenty-five years ago this month, I had just gotten my first computer,
a Commodore 64, and was learning the very basics (quite literally) of
programming. Unfortunately for my education, it would be a full eight
years before I’d be permitted to see any source code to a computer
program that I didn’t write myself. I often look back at those eight
years and consider that my most formative years of programming learning were
wasted, since I was not permitted to study the programs written by the
greatest minds.

Fortunately for all the young programmers to come after me, something
else was happening in an office at an MIT building in September 1983
that would make sure everyone would have the freedom to study code, and
the freedom to improve it and contribute to the global library of
software development knowledge. Richard
Stallman announced
that he would start the GNU project, a complete operating system
that would give all its users freedom.

I got involved with Free Software in 1992. At the time, I was the one
student in my university who had ever heard of GNU and the recently
released kernel named Linux. My professors knew of “that Stallman
guy” but were focused primarily on academic research. Fortunately
for me, they nevertheless gave me free reign over the systems to turn
them into what might have been, in late 1992, one of the first Computer
Science labs running entirely Free Software.

Much more has happened since even then. To commemorate all that has
come since Stallman’s announcement, my colleagues at the FSF, home of
the GNU project, released a video for
this historic 25 year anniversary. It took twenty-five years, and a
fight at the BBC over DRM, but now even a famous, accomplished actor
like Stephen Fry
is interested in the work that Stallman began way back in a year when
Michael Jackson was a musical phenomenon and not merely a punchline of a
joke.

These days, I have almost weekly moments of surprise that people
outside of the Software Freedom Movement have actually heard of what I
do for a living. When Matt Lee (whom I got to know when he came up through the
ranks in the 2000’s as I did in the 1990’s as a new FSF volunteer) told
me a few months ago that Stephen Fry had enthusiastically and
immediately agreed to make this video, it was yet another moment of
surprise. We now live in a movement that impacts everyone in the
industrialized world, because nearly everyone who has access to
electricity also must use a computer to interact with daily life. So
many people are impacted by the problems of proprietary software that
Stallman noticed in 1983 impacting his small developer community.
Thanks to the work of thousands, we now have the opportunity to welcome
new groups into a computing world that can give them freedom. I’m happy
that the friendly face of a talented and accomplished entertainer and
world-class actor is here to welcome them.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/02/gnu-birthday.html

Twenty-five years ago this month, I had just gotten my first computer,
a Commodore 64, and was learning the very basics (quite literally) of
programming. Unfortunately for my education, it would be a full eight
years before I’d be permitted to see any source code to a computer
program that I didn’t write myself. I often look back at those eight
years and consider that my most formative years of programming learning were
wasted, since I was not permitted to study the programs written by the
greatest minds.

Fortunately for all the young programmers to come after me, something
else was happening in an office at an MIT building in September 1983
that would make sure everyone would have the freedom to study code, and
the freedom to improve it and contribute to the global library of
software development knowledge. Richard
Stallman announced
that he would start the GNU project, a complete operating system
that would give all its users freedom.

I got involved with Free Software in 1992. At the time, I was the one
student in my university who had ever heard of GNU and the recently
released kernel named Linux. My professors knew of “that Stallman
guy” but were focused primarily on academic research. Fortunately
for me, they nevertheless gave me free reign over the systems to turn
them into what might have been, in late 1992, one of the first Computer
Science labs running entirely Free Software.

Much more has happened since even then. To commemorate all that has
come since Stallman’s announcement, my colleagues at the FSF, home of
the GNU project, released a video for
this historic 25 year anniversary. It took twenty-five years, and a
fight at the BBC over DRM, but now even a famous, accomplished actor
like Stephen Fry
is interested in the work that Stallman began way back in a year when
Michael Jackson was a musical phenomenon and not merely a punchline of a
joke.

These days, I have almost weekly moments of surprise that people
outside of the Software Freedom Movement have actually heard of what I
do for a living. When Matt Lee (whom I got to know when he came up through the
ranks in the 2000’s as I did in the 1990’s as a new FSF volunteer) told
me a few months ago that Stephen Fry had enthusiastically and
immediately agreed to make this video, it was yet another moment of
surprise. We now live in a movement that impacts everyone in the
industrialized world, because nearly everyone who has access to
electricity also must use a computer to interact with daily life. So
many people are impacted by the problems of proprietary software that
Stallman noticed in 1983 impacting his small developer community.
Thanks to the work of thousands, we now have the opportunity to welcome
new groups into a computing world that can give them freedom. I’m happy
that the friendly face of a talented and accomplished entertainer and
world-class actor is here to welcome them.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/02/gnu-birthday.html

Twenty-five years ago this month, I had just gotten my first computer,
a Commodore 64, and was learning the very basics (quite literally) of
programming. Unfortunately for my education, it would be a full eight
years before I’d be permitted to see any source code to a computer
program that I didn’t write myself. I often look back at those eight
years and consider that my most formative years of programming learning were
wasted, since I was not permitted to study the programs written by the
greatest minds.

Fortunately for all the young programmers to come after me, something
else was happening in an office at an MIT building in September 1983
that would make sure everyone would have the freedom to study code, and
the freedom to improve it and contribute to the global library of
software development knowledge. Richard
Stallman announced
that he would start the GNU project, a complete operating system
that would give all its users freedom.

I got involved with Free Software in 1992. At the time, I was the one
student in my university who had ever heard of GNU and the recently
released kernel named Linux. My professors knew of “that Stallman
guy” but were focused primarily on academic research. Fortunately
for me, they nevertheless gave me free reign over the systems to turn
them into what might have been, in late 1992, one of the first Computer
Science labs running entirely Free Software.

Much more has happened since even then. To commemorate all that has
come since Stallman’s announcement, my colleagues at the FSF, home of
the GNU project, released a video for
this historic 25 year anniversary. It took twenty-five years, and a
fight at the BBC over DRM, but now even a famous, accomplished actor
like Stephen Fry
is interested in the work that Stallman began way back in a year when
Michael Jackson was a musical phenomenon and not merely a punchline of a
joke.

These days, I have almost weekly moments of surprise that people
outside of the Software Freedom Movement have actually heard of what I
do for a living. When Matt Lee (whom I got to know when he came up through the
ranks in the 2000’s as I did in the 1990’s as a new FSF volunteer) told
me a few months ago that Stephen Fry had enthusiastically and
immediately agreed to make this video, it was yet another moment of
surprise. We now live in a movement that impacts everyone in the
industrialized world, because nearly everyone who has access to
electricity also must use a computer to interact with daily life. So
many people are impacted by the problems of proprietary software that
Stallman noticed in 1983 impacting his small developer community.
Thanks to the work of thousands, we now have the opportunity to welcome
new groups into a computing world that can give them freedom. I’m happy
that the friendly face of a talented and accomplished entertainer and
world-class actor is here to welcome them.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/02/gnu-birthday.html

Twenty-five years ago this month, I had just gotten my first computer,
a Commodore 64, and was learning the very basics (quite literally) of
programming. Unfortunately for my education, it would be a full eight
years before I’d be permitted to see any source code to a computer
program that I didn’t write myself. I often look back at those eight
years and consider that my most formative years of programming learning were
wasted, since I was not permitted to study the programs written by the
greatest minds.

Fortunately for all the young programmers to come after me, something
else was happening in an office at an MIT building in September 1983
that would make sure everyone would have the freedom to study code, and
the freedom to improve it and contribute to the global library of
software development knowledge. Richard
Stallman announced
that he would start the GNU project, a complete operating system
that would give all its users freedom.

I got involved with Free Software in 1992. At the time, I was the one
student in my university who had ever heard of GNU and the recently
released kernel named Linux. My professors knew of “that Stallman
guy” but were focused primarily on academic research. Fortunately
for me, they nevertheless gave me free reign over the systems to turn
them into what might have been, in late 1992, one of the first Computer
Science labs running entirely Free Software.

Much more has happened since even then. To commemorate all that has
come since Stallman’s announcement, my colleagues at the FSF, home of
the GNU project, released a video for
this historic 25 year anniversary. It took twenty-five years, and a
fight at the BBC over DRM, but now even a famous, accomplished actor
like Stephen Fry
is interested in the work that Stallman began way back in a year when
Michael Jackson was a musical phenomenon and not merely a punchline of a
joke.

These days, I have almost weekly moments of surprise that people
outside of the Software Freedom Movement have actually heard of what I
do for a living. When Matt Lee (whom I got to know when he came up through the
ranks in the 2000’s as I did in the 1990’s as a new FSF volunteer) told
me a few months ago that Stephen Fry had enthusiastically and
immediately agreed to make this video, it was yet another moment of
surprise. We now live in a movement that impacts everyone in the
industrialized world, because nearly everyone who has access to
electricity also must use a computer to interact with daily life. So
many people are impacted by the problems of proprietary software that
Stallman noticed in 1983 impacting his small developer community.
Thanks to the work of thousands, we now have the opportunity to welcome
new groups into a computing world that can give them freedom. I’m happy
that the friendly face of a talented and accomplished entertainer and
world-class actor is here to welcome them.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/02/gnu-birthday.html

Twenty-five years ago this month, I had just gotten my first computer,
a Commodore 64, and was learning the very basics (quite literally) of
programming. Unfortunately for my education, it would be a full eight
years before I’d be permitted to see any source code to a computer
program that I didn’t write myself. I often look back at those eight
years and consider that my most formative years of programming learning were
wasted, since I was not permitted to study the programs written by the
greatest minds.

Fortunately for all the young programmers to come after me, something
else was happening in an office at an MIT building in September 1983
that would make sure everyone would have the freedom to study code, and
the freedom to improve it and contribute to the global library of
software development knowledge. Richard
Stallman announced
that he would start the GNU project, a complete operating system
that would give all its users freedom.

I got involved with Free Software in 1992. At the time, I was the one
student in my university who had ever heard of GNU and the recently
released kernel named Linux. My professors knew of “that Stallman
guy” but were focused primarily on academic research. Fortunately
for me, they nevertheless gave me free reign over the systems to turn
them into what might have been, in late 1992, one of the first Computer
Science labs running entirely Free Software.

Much more has happened since even then. To commemorate all that has
come since Stallman’s announcement, my colleagues at the FSF, home of
the GNU project, released a video for
this historic 25 year anniversary. It took twenty-five years, and a
fight at the BBC over DRM, but now even a famous, accomplished actor
like Stephen Fry
is interested in the work that Stallman began way back in a year when
Michael Jackson was a musical phenomenon and not merely a punchline of a
joke.

These days, I have almost weekly moments of surprise that people
outside of the Software Freedom Movement have actually heard of what I
do for a living. When Matt Lee (whom I got to know when he came up through the
ranks in the 2000’s as I did in the 1990’s as a new FSF volunteer) told
me a few months ago that Stephen Fry had enthusiastically and
immediately agreed to make this video, it was yet another moment of
surprise. We now live in a movement that impacts everyone in the
industrialized world, because nearly everyone who has access to
electricity also must use a computer to interact with daily life. So
many people are impacted by the problems of proprietary software that
Stallman noticed in 1983 impacting his small developer community.
Thanks to the work of thousands, we now have the opportunity to welcome
new groups into a computing world that can give them freedom. I’m happy
that the friendly face of a talented and accomplished entertainer and
world-class actor is here to welcome them.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/02/gnu-birthday.html

Twenty-five years ago this month, I had just gotten my first computer,
a Commodore 64, and was learning the very basics (quite literally) of
programming. Unfortunately for my education, it would be a full eight
years before I’d be permitted to see any source code to a computer
program that I didn’t write myself. I often look back at those eight
years and consider that my most formative years of programming learning were
wasted, since I was not permitted to study the programs written by the
greatest minds.

Fortunately for all the young programmers to come after me, something
else was happening in an office at an MIT building in September 1983
that would make sure everyone would have the freedom to study code, and
the freedom to improve it and contribute to the global library of
software development knowledge. Richard
Stallman announced
that he would start the GNU project, a complete operating system
that would give all its users freedom.

I got involved with Free Software in 1992. At the time, I was the one
student in my university who had ever heard of GNU and the recently
released kernel named Linux. My professors knew of “that Stallman
guy” but were focused primarily on academic research. Fortunately
for me, they nevertheless gave me free reign over the systems to turn
them into what might have been, in late 1992, one of the first Computer
Science labs running entirely Free Software.

Much more has happened since even then. To commemorate all that has
come since Stallman’s announcement, my colleagues at the FSF, home of
the GNU project, released a video for
this historic 25 year anniversary. It took twenty-five years, and a
fight at the BBC over DRM, but now even a famous, accomplished actor
like Stephen Fry
is interested in the work that Stallman began way back in a year when
Michael Jackson was a musical phenomenon and not merely a punchline of a
joke.

These days, I have almost weekly moments of surprise that people
outside of the Software Freedom Movement have actually heard of what I
do for a living. When Matt Lee (whom I got to know when he came up through the
ranks in the 2000’s as I did in the 1990’s as a new FSF volunteer) told
me a few months ago that Stephen Fry had enthusiastically and
immediately agreed to make this video, it was yet another moment of
surprise. We now live in a movement that impacts everyone in the
industrialized world, because nearly everyone who has access to
electricity also must use a computer to interact with daily life. So
many people are impacted by the problems of proprietary software that
Stallman noticed in 1983 impacting his small developer community.
Thanks to the work of thousands, we now have the opportunity to welcome
new groups into a computing world that can give them freedom. I’m happy
that the friendly face of a talented and accomplished entertainer and
world-class actor is here to welcome them.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/02/gnu-birthday.html

Twenty-five years ago this month, I had just gotten my first computer,
a Commodore 64, and was learning the very basics (quite literally) of
programming. Unfortunately for my education, it would be a full eight
years before I’d be permitted to see any source code to a computer
program that I didn’t write myself. I often look back at those eight
years and consider that my most formative years of programming learning were
wasted, since I was not permitted to study the programs written by the
greatest minds.

Fortunately for all the young programmers to come after me, something
else was happening in an office at an MIT building in September 1983
that would make sure everyone would have the freedom to study code, and
the freedom to improve it and contribute to the global library of
software development knowledge. Richard
Stallman announced
that he would start the GNU project, a complete operating system
that would give all its users freedom.

I got involved with Free Software in 1992. At the time, I was the one
student in my university who had ever heard of GNU and the recently
released kernel named Linux. My professors knew of “that Stallman
guy” but were focused primarily on academic research. Fortunately
for me, they nevertheless gave me free reign over the systems to turn
them into what might have been, in late 1992, one of the first Computer
Science labs running entirely Free Software.

Much more has happened since even then. To commemorate all that has
come since Stallman’s announcement, my colleagues at the FSF, home of
the GNU project, released a video for
this historic 25 year anniversary. It took twenty-five years, and a
fight at the BBC over DRM, but now even a famous, accomplished actor
like Stephen Fry
is interested in the work that Stallman began way back in a year when
Michael Jackson was a musical phenomenon and not merely a punchline of a
joke.

These days, I have almost weekly moments of surprise that people
outside of the Software Freedom Movement have actually heard of what I
do for a living. When Matt Lee (whom I got to know when he came up through the
ranks in the 2000’s as I did in the 1990’s as a new FSF volunteer) told
me a few months ago that Stephen Fry had enthusiastically and
immediately agreed to make this video, it was yet another moment of
surprise. We now live in a movement that impacts everyone in the
industrialized world, because nearly everyone who has access to
electricity also must use a computer to interact with daily life. So
many people are impacted by the problems of proprietary software that
Stallman noticed in 1983 impacting his small developer community.
Thanks to the work of thousands, we now have the opportunity to welcome
new groups into a computing world that can give them freedom. I’m happy
that the friendly face of a talented and accomplished entertainer and
world-class actor is here to welcome them.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/02/gnu-birthday.html

Twenty-five years ago this month, I had just gotten my first computer,
a Commodore 64, and was learning the very basics (quite literally) of
programming. Unfortunately for my education, it would be a full eight
years before I’d be permitted to see any source code to a computer
program that I didn’t write myself. I often look back at those eight
years and consider that my most formative years of programming learning were
wasted, since I was not permitted to study the programs written by the
greatest minds.

Fortunately for all the young programmers to come after me, something
else was happening in an office at an MIT building in September 1983
that would make sure everyone would have the freedom to study code, and
the freedom to improve it and contribute to the global library of
software development knowledge. Richard
Stallman announced
that he would start the GNU project, a complete operating system
that would give all its users freedom.

I got involved with Free Software in 1992. At the time, I was the one
student in my university who had ever heard of GNU and the recently
released kernel named Linux. My professors knew of “that Stallman
guy” but were focused primarily on academic research. Fortunately
for me, they nevertheless gave me free reign over the systems to turn
them into what might have been, in late 1992, one of the first Computer
Science labs running entirely Free Software.

Much more has happened since even then. To commemorate all that has
come since Stallman’s announcement, my colleagues at the FSF, home of
the GNU project, released a video for
this historic 25 year anniversary. It took twenty-five years, and a
fight at the BBC over DRM, but now even a famous, accomplished actor
like Stephen Fry
is interested in the work that Stallman began way back in a year when
Michael Jackson was a musical phenomenon and not merely a punchline of a
joke.

These days, I have almost weekly moments of surprise that people
outside of the Software Freedom Movement have actually heard of what I
do for a living. When Matt Lee (whom I got to know when he came up through the
ranks in the 2000’s as I did in the 1990’s as a new FSF volunteer) told
me a few months ago that Stephen Fry had enthusiastically and
immediately agreed to make this video, it was yet another moment of
surprise. We now live in a movement that impacts everyone in the
industrialized world, because nearly everyone who has access to
electricity also must use a computer to interact with daily life. So
many people are impacted by the problems of proprietary software that
Stallman noticed in 1983 impacting his small developer community.
Thanks to the work of thousands, we now have the opportunity to welcome
new groups into a computing world that can give them freedom. I’m happy
that the friendly face of a talented and accomplished entertainer and
world-class actor is here to welcome them.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/02/gnu-birthday.html

Twenty-five years ago this month, I had just gotten my first computer,
a Commodore 64, and was learning the very basics (quite literally) of
programming. Unfortunately for my education, it would be a full eight
years before I’d be permitted to see any source code to a computer
program that I didn’t write myself. I often look back at those eight
years and consider that my most formative years of programming learning were
wasted, since I was not permitted to study the programs written by the
greatest minds.

Fortunately for all the young programmers to come after me, something
else was happening in an office at an MIT building in September 1983
that would make sure everyone would have the freedom to study code, and
the freedom to improve it and contribute to the global library of
software development knowledge. Richard
Stallman announced
that he would start the GNU project, a complete operating system
that would give all its users freedom.

I got involved with Free Software in 1992. At the time, I was the one
student in my university who had ever heard of GNU and the recently
released kernel named Linux. My professors knew of “that Stallman
guy” but were focused primarily on academic research. Fortunately
for me, they nevertheless gave me free reign over the systems to turn
them into what might have been, in late 1992, one of the first Computer
Science labs running entirely Free Software.

Much more has happened since even then. To commemorate all that has
come since Stallman’s announcement, my colleagues at the FSF, home of
the GNU project, released a video for
this historic 25 year anniversary. It took twenty-five years, and a
fight at the BBC over DRM, but now even a famous, accomplished actor
like Stephen Fry
is interested in the work that Stallman began way back in a year when
Michael Jackson was a musical phenomenon and not merely a punchline of a
joke.

These days, I have almost weekly moments of surprise that people
outside of the Software Freedom Movement have actually heard of what I
do for a living. When Matt Lee (whom I got to know when he came up through the
ranks in the 2000’s as I did in the 1990’s as a new FSF volunteer) told
me a few months ago that Stephen Fry had enthusiastically and
immediately agreed to make this video, it was yet another moment of
surprise. We now live in a movement that impacts everyone in the
industrialized world, because nearly everyone who has access to
electricity also must use a computer to interact with daily life. So
many people are impacted by the problems of proprietary software that
Stallman noticed in 1983 impacting his small developer community.
Thanks to the work of thousands, we now have the opportunity to welcome
new groups into a computing world that can give them freedom. I’m happy
that the friendly face of a talented and accomplished entertainer and
world-class actor is here to welcome them.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/02/gnu-birthday.html

Twenty-five years ago this month, I had just gotten my first computer,
a Commodore 64, and was learning the very basics (quite literally) of
programming. Unfortunately for my education, it would be a full eight
years before I’d be permitted to see any source code to a computer
program that I didn’t write myself. I often look back at those eight
years and consider that my most formative years of programming learning were
wasted, since I was not permitted to study the programs written by the
greatest minds.

Fortunately for all the young programmers to come after me, something
else was happening in an office at an MIT building in September 1983
that would make sure everyone would have the freedom to study code, and
the freedom to improve it and contribute to the global library of
software development knowledge. Richard
Stallman announced
that he would start the GNU project, a complete operating system
that would give all its users freedom.

I got involved with Free Software in 1992. At the time, I was the one
student in my university who had ever heard of GNU and the recently
released kernel named Linux. My professors knew of “that Stallman
guy” but were focused primarily on academic research. Fortunately
for me, they nevertheless gave me free reign over the systems to turn
them into what might have been, in late 1992, one of the first Computer
Science labs running entirely Free Software.

Much more has happened since even then. To commemorate all that has
come since Stallman’s announcement, my colleagues at the FSF, home of
the GNU project, released a video for
this historic 25 year anniversary. It took twenty-five years, and a
fight at the BBC over DRM, but now even a famous, accomplished actor
like Stephen Fry
is interested in the work that Stallman began way back in a year when
Michael Jackson was a musical phenomenon and not merely a punchline of a
joke.

These days, I have almost weekly moments of surprise that people
outside of the Software Freedom Movement have actually heard of what I
do for a living. When Matt Lee (whom I got to know when he came up through the
ranks in the 2000’s as I did in the 1990’s as a new FSF volunteer) told
me a few months ago that Stephen Fry had enthusiastically and
immediately agreed to make this video, it was yet another moment of
surprise. We now live in a movement that impacts everyone in the
industrialized world, because nearly everyone who has access to
electricity also must use a computer to interact with daily life. So
many people are impacted by the problems of proprietary software that
Stallman noticed in 1983 impacting his small developer community.
Thanks to the work of thousands, we now have the opportunity to welcome
new groups into a computing world that can give them freedom. I’m happy
that the friendly face of a talented and accomplished entertainer and
world-class actor is here to welcome them.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/02/gnu-birthday.html

Twenty-five years ago this month, I had just gotten my first computer,
a Commodore 64, and was learning the very basics (quite literally) of
programming. Unfortunately for my education, it would be a full eight
years before I’d be permitted to see any source code to a computer
program that I didn’t write myself. I often look back at those eight
years and consider that my most formative years of programming learning were
wasted, since I was not permitted to study the programs written by the
greatest minds.

Fortunately for all the young programmers to come after me, something
else was happening in an office at an MIT building in September 1983
that would make sure everyone would have the freedom to study code, and
the freedom to improve it and contribute to the global library of
software development knowledge. Richard
Stallman announced
that he would start the GNU project, a complete operating system
that would give all its users freedom.

I got involved with Free Software in 1992. At the time, I was the one
student in my university who had ever heard of GNU and the recently
released kernel named Linux. My professors knew of “that Stallman
guy” but were focused primarily on academic research. Fortunately
for me, they nevertheless gave me free reign over the systems to turn
them into what might have been, in late 1992, one of the first Computer
Science labs running entirely Free Software.

Much more has happened since even then. To commemorate all that has
come since Stallman’s announcement, my colleagues at the FSF, home of
the GNU project, released a video for
this historic 25 year anniversary. It took twenty-five years, and a
fight at the BBC over DRM, but now even a famous, accomplished actor
like Stephen Fry
is interested in the work that Stallman began way back in a year when
Michael Jackson was a musical phenomenon and not merely a punchline of a
joke.

These days, I have almost weekly moments of surprise that people
outside of the Software Freedom Movement have actually heard of what I
do for a living. When Matt Lee (whom I got to know when he came up through the
ranks in the 2000’s as I did in the 1990’s as a new FSF volunteer) told
me a few months ago that Stephen Fry had enthusiastically and
immediately agreed to make this video, it was yet another moment of
surprise. We now live in a movement that impacts everyone in the
industrialized world, because nearly everyone who has access to
electricity also must use a computer to interact with daily life. So
many people are impacted by the problems of proprietary software that
Stallman noticed in 1983 impacting his small developer community.
Thanks to the work of thousands, we now have the opportunity to welcome
new groups into a computing world that can give them freedom. I’m happy
that the friendly face of a talented and accomplished entertainer and
world-class actor is here to welcome them.

Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/09/02/gnu-birthday.html

Twenty-five years ago this month, I had just gotten my first computer,
a Commodore 64, and was learning the very basics (quite literally) of
programming. Unfortunately for my education, it would be a full eight
years before I’d be permitted to see any source code to a computer
program that I didn’t write myself. I often look back at those eight
years and consider that my most formative years of programming learning were
wasted, since I was not permitted to study the programs written by the
greatest minds.

Fortunately for all the young programmers to come after me, something
else was happening in an office at an MIT building in September 1983
that would make sure everyone would have the freedom to study code, and
the freedom to improve it and contribute to the global library of
software development knowledge. Richard
Stallman announced
that he would start the GNU project, a complete operating system
that would give all its users freedom.

I got involved with Free Software in 1992. At the time, I was the one
student in my university who had ever heard of GNU and the recently
released kernel named Linux. My professors knew of “that Stallman
guy” but were focused primarily on academic research. Fortunately
for me, they nevertheless gave me free reign over the systems to turn
them into what might have been, in late 1992, one of the first Computer
Science labs running entirely Free Software.

Much more has happened since even then. To commemorate all that has
come since Stallman’s announcement, my colleagues at the FSF, home of
the GNU project, released a video for
this historic 25 year anniversary. It took twenty-five years, and a
fight at the BBC over DRM, but now even a famous, accomplished actor
like Stephen Fry
is interested in the work that Stallman began way back in a year when
Michael Jackson was a musical phenomenon and not merely a punchline of a
joke.

These days, I have almost weekly moments of surprise that people
outside of the Software Freedom Movement have actually heard of what I
do for a living. When Matt Lee (whom I got to know when he came up through the
ranks in the 2000’s as I did in the 1990’s as a new FSF volunteer) told
me a few months ago that Stephen Fry had enthusiastically and
immediately agreed to make this video, it was yet another moment of
surprise. We now live in a movement that impacts everyone in the
industrialized world, because nearly everyone who has access to
electricity also must use a computer to interact with daily life. So
many people are impacted by the problems of proprietary software that
Stallman noticed in 1983 impacting his small developer community.
Thanks to the work of thousands, we now have the opportunity to welcome
new groups into a computing world that can give them freedom. I’m happy
that the friendly face of a talented and accomplished entertainer and
world-class actor is here to welcome them.