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pluralitybook / plurality

Root repository for ⿻數位 Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy by E. Glen Weyl, Audrey Tang and the Plurality Community
https://www.plurality.net
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Incorrect Representation of Free Software Movement #955

Open nishio opened 1 week ago

nishio commented 1 week ago

There are significant inaccuracies in the documentation regarding the Free Software Movement led by Richard Stallman. The current description misrepresents the historical context and objectives of the movement. This issue was highlighted by Hiroo Yamagata, the translator of Richard Stallman's trilogy.

Current Text:

Richard Stallman, opposing the closed nature of the Unix OS developed by AT&T, led the “free software movement”, promoting the “GNU General Public License” that allowed users to run, study, share, and modify the source code. This was eventually rebranded as OSS, with a goal to replace Unix with an open-source alternative, Linux, led by Linus Torvalds.

Issues:

  1. The Free Software Movement was not "rebranded" as OSS. The Free Software Movement and Open Source Software (OSS) movement are distinct, though related.
  2. The goal of the Free Software Movement was not to replace Unix with Linux. The Linux kernel developed by Linus Torvalds is just one of the many pieces of software that chose the GPL. While it is one of the notable success stories, there are many other software programs under the GPL that also run on Mac and Windows.
  3. Important contributions of the Free Software Movement, such as internet infrastructure software like BIND and Sendmail, are not mentioned.

Suggested Revision:

It is important to accurately represent the history and objectives of the Free Software Movement. A more accurate description would be:

OSS as a conscious movement emerged in the 1970s, in reaction to the commercial and secretive direction of the software industry. Richard Stallman, in order to counter this trend, set out to develop a completele free (in terms of use, not price) environment, as well as a clever hack on copyright called “GNU General Public License” that ensured continued collaboration. There were other similar efforts, that were later jointly branded as OSS. It's most notable successes include Linux, led by Linus Torvalds, but there are numerous others. OSS is truly a showcase of the power of ⿻ where diverse people can join forces to achieve whatever they can/want, and achieve great success. Much of the Internet's infrastructure continues to rely heavily on various OSS.