The Free Software Community After 20 Years: With great but incomplete success, what now? (NewsForge)

Posted Jan 5, 2004 23:38 UTC (Mon) by Baylink (subscriber, #755) [Link]

While I'm sure lots of people will take great delight in highlighting the irony inherent in
rms' observation about the continued incompletion of the HURD (and Ciaran will take great
umbrage thereto; Hi, CO :-) the fact remains...

The world is almost, but not quite entirely unlike what it would have been at this stage of
the game had not *something* like FL/OSS risen up to give challenge to commercial computer
software -- and I most decidedly do *not* mean solely the computing world. Fidonet contibuted
to the overthrow of tyranny, as did the Macintosh, and (GNU/)Linux and it's ilk are, in their
turn, making similar contributions... though the type of tyranny may differ somewhat.

And, for all that many of us may consider rms too strident, too hard-line... too much an
ideologue, the fact remains that *someone* needed to be way over there on the edge, urging us
to head in his direction *even if we don't get all the way there*... and it's *REALLY* hard
work.

Me'at is off to the D'yuke.

More power to you, rms. Keep up the good work, even if it seems like we don't really give a
crap. We do.

Posted Jan 6, 2004 5:14 UTC (Tue) by iabervon (subscriber, #722) [Link]

It's interesting to consider what RMS's contribution actually is. I don't
think it's the particular code he's written. I don't even think it's GNU,
the software which he has gotten other people to join in writing. I think
it's the basic idea that, if you are unhappy with the state of the
available software, you can actually do something about it.

It seems to me that he's wrong about a whole lot of things, but in a way
that inspires people to do the right thing. And he inspires people who
otherwise wouldn't have thought about the subject at all. I don't think
his kernel design is right, I don't think his code is good, I don't think
his philosophy towards software is quite right, and I don't even think
he's right about what his contribution is exactly. But none of that
really matters, because his mistakes have attracted a vast array of
experts who want to correct them, and who are willing to share their
corrections.

In short, I think that the main benefit that RMS has provided to the
world is that he's made a lot of people less frustrated and more itchy.

Posted Jan 6, 2004 8:00 UTC (Tue) by coriordan (subscriber, #7544) [Link]

Of course I want to post, but I've got nothing to argue against!?

It doesn't feel like a full five years since he posted the 15 Years of Free Software article.

I've been listening to him for ~6 years. I can't imagine how wearying 20 years must be, but I'm very glad he didn't stop after 13.

After Lessig became active in the digital rights world, he started giving talks. Two years later he stopped. He had given his talk to thousands of people, he had informed all of them about what is happening and what needs to be done. All his audiences clapped and asked questions at the end, but nobody was doing anything enough to make a difference.

I don't condemn Lessig for stopping. He has contributed far more than most and he still works on Creative Commons and assists Stallman, but it puts Stallmans dedication into perspective.

Stallman is clearly an exceptional person, and he puts in 351 days a year. (to my knowledge, he takes 2 weeks holidays, but I'd be very surprised if he didn't bring his laptop) What more can he possibly do? A: continue. And he will, but he would clearly appreciate some help from a few more of us. I hope I'll have helped out a lot more by the time he releases "A quarter century of Free Software".

Posted Jan 6, 2004 9:19 UTC (Tue) by beejaybee (guest, #1581) [Link]

Just what would constitute "complete" success?

Fact is, there are always people who are time-poor - they will always be people prepared to pay someone else to do something they haven't the time to do (in kind, if not in hard cash). So commercial software isn't going to die out any time, let alone real soon.

RMS has made it possible for a large number of computer users to work without having to buy/lease/rent commercial software. This is a huge success. It's a pity that most people whose needs _could_ be met by existing FLOSS "products" are still paying for commercial equivalents - however this is easily explained; most people involved in FLOSS are not interested in "commercial" activities like marketing - again RMS is an outstanding example of how to seperate evangelism from advertising.

For the next five years, the problems I see are not with commercial attacks on FLOSS as such. We need to be concerned about:

a) growing areas like digital image processing which are poorly served by FLOSS - where are the linux drivers for digital cameras & high quality photo printers?

b) digital rights management;

c) secure identification for transaction processing.

These last two really go together. FLOSS (and linux with it) will die in the event that high-powered executives (CEOs and even governments) force proprietary hardware solutions to these perceived problems. Naturally commercial marketeers are only to willing to foist _their_ proprietary solutions on to us all, even if their solutions are far from perfect. There's a job of education to be done; let's hope that people like RMS are willing to take on the marketeers so that we can retain the choice of running free, open systems in the "real world".