2025-03-27 17:52:56 +00:00
|
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
|
tags: [history, ecopolsoc, FOSS]
|
|
|
|
|
created: Thursday, March 27, 2025
|
|
|
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
# d212acdb_from_free-software_to_open_source
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
For the decade or so after Stallman's "Initial Announcement" of GNU in 1983,
|
|
|
|
|
free software and the philosophy behind it remained the preserve of the
|
|
|
|
|
technical underground. During these years, the phrase "open source" did not
|
|
|
|
|
exist.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Many engineers were using and contributing to free software in their free-time
|
|
|
|
|
and surreptitiously using it in the corporate context but there was little
|
|
|
|
|
awareness of it amongst the business class. If they did know about GNU-Linux
|
|
|
|
|
they did not see it as a viable alternative to proprietary software, due to the
|
|
|
|
|
lack of licensing, customer support and the misapprehension that the product
|
|
|
|
|
would be inferior.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The turning point came when
|
|
|
|
|
[Netscape](./c301a0b3-1d8_Mosaic_Netscape_and_Browser_Wars.md), in a last ditch
|
|
|
|
|
effort to resist Microsoft's obliteration of their market, made their
|
|
|
|
|
source-code open. This caught the attention of the corporate class and the
|
|
|
|
|
additional media attention led to a greater interest amongst capitalists
|
|
|
|
|
generally.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
They quickly surmised that this could be an avenue of profit maximisation:
|
|
|
|
|
free-labour, no licensing costs etc. As part of this process, free software was
|
|
|
|
|
rebranded as "open source", all the better to calm investors' worries about its
|
|
|
|
|
socialistic flavour having misread "free" as meaning "for no cost".
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interestingly Microsoft publicly disparaged Linux and free software generally in
|
|
|
|
|
public but an employee leaked internal memoranda which showed them to be most
|
|
|
|
|
concerned. They led a vigorous PR campaign of disinformation about free
|
|
|
|
|
software, tying it to the emerging phenomenon of "illegal file sharing". This
|
|
|
|
|
was propitious timing, as it coincided with the passing of the DMCA (Digital
|
|
|
|
|
Millennium Copyright Act) in the United States which introduced punitive
|
|
|
|
|
punishment for those caught distributing proprietary media and software.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
So this is really the origin of hackers' antipathy to Microsoft and it's
|
|
|
|
|
interesting to reflect on this today where Microsoft has very effectively
|
|
|
|
|
subsumed "open source" into itself, realising it couldn't beat it on its own
|
|
|
|
|
terms. Most notably with their acquisition of GitHub.
|
2025-03-27 17:56:31 +00:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Source
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gabriella Coleman, _Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking_ (2013)
|
