What I was trying to point out with the comment about the ls command is that the little things matter. The common mantra that 'We all stand on the shoulders of giants', while true, makes it easy to overlook the fact that bigger accomplishments are themselves standing on the thousand tiny shoulders of ordinary people. And, although I didn't explicitly discuss the history of how the ls command was written for GNU/Linux (because I don't know those details), I took it for granted that RMS had a wealth of prior art to draw from. There is always a precedent - sometimes obscure, most of the time obvious. Why didn't RMS use ls code from BSD? I don't know the details of what happened, but if it is accurate to say that RMS "re-invented the wheel" in a clean-room environment to avoid copyright problems, then that explains it perfectly. He would have loved to use existing code, but it was (potentially) tainted with legal encumbrance - meaning he was prevented from using the code freely. All the little things/people matter, and you can't have a free system if any of the pieces might be non-free. Although Richard Stallman didn't invent freedom, he did figure out a way to use the U.S. and international legal framework to ensure freedom of speech as expressed in computer language. It's quite hard to be first at anything.
Thomas Jefferson wasn't the first person to promote public education (for argument sake, consider it like 'freedom in instructional speech'). Charlemagne did it in the 8th and 9th century [1][2]. Charlemagne wasn't first, since Plato created the Acedemy in 385 BC [3]. Plato wasn't first, because he learned from Socrates. Socrates wasn't first; etc. The irony of comparing present-day software freedoms with freedom of education is how similar the (battle) story lines are. Take this quote from a wikipedia article about the sophists of ancient Greece (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophism#Sophists_of_Ancient_Greece): === Excerpt about the Sophists == "Many of them taught their skills for a price. Due to the importance of such skills in the litigious social life of Athens, practitioners often commanded very high fees. The practice of taking fees, along with the sophists practice of questioning the existence and roles of traditional deities (this was done to make "the weaker argument appear the stronger") and investigating into the nature of the heavens and the earth prompted a popular reaction against them. Their attacks against Socrates (in fictional prosecution speeches) prompted a vigorous condemnation from his followers, including Plato and Xenophon, as there was a popular view of Socrates as a sophist. Their attitude, coupled with the wealth garnered by many of the sophists, eventually led to popular resentment against sophist practitioners and the ideas and writings associated with sophism." "In comparison, Socrates accepted no fee, instead adopting a self-effacing posture, which he exemplified by Socratic questioning... " === Modern version === "Many of them sold their software for a price. Due to the importance of such skills in the litigious social life of the world, vendors often commanded very high fees. The practice of taking fees, along with the vendors practice of questioning the existence and roles of traditional sharing among hobbyists (this was done to make "the weaker argument appear the stronger") and calling their own customers thieves [5] prompted a popular reaction against them. Their attacks against Stallman (in fictional comics [6] and theatrical reenactments [7]) prompted a vigorous rotflmao laughter from XKCD followers and Stallman supporters. Vendor attitude [8][9], coupled with the wealth garnered by many of the vendors, eventually led to popular resentment against proprietary software practitioners and the ideas and writings associated with intellectual slavery." "In comparison, Stallman wrote software with four freedoms, adopting the true American Way [10], which he exemplified by writing the GPL v3 in an open collaborative process. ++++ The GPL was and is a solution to avoid the legal turf wars that plague software. It is the solution that (helps) prevent superior technology (e.g. the TCP/IP stack of BSD) from being marginalized, or locked up, and eventually forgotten. When all software is covered by the GPL, you just write code according to the problem you're trying to solve without worrying. Or in other words, software is practiced by programmers, users and communities (including business, governments and universities) not lawyers. Just like education should be something anyone -- not just monks, or the privileged -- can practice. I'm glad we're talking about the history of FOSS, because as they say, those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. I'm also glad to think about what the future holds as we continue to see the GPL, Linux and Free software gain wider acceptance and traction -- in business and industry, in government, in education, and on desktops, mobile platforms and devices of all kinds. [11] [12] -- Greg [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne#Education_reforms [2] http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/Santiago/histchrl.html [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophism#Sophists_of_Ancient_Greece [5] http://www.digibarn.com/collections/newsletters/homebrew/V2_02/homebrew_V2_02_p2.jpg [6] http://xkcd.com/225/ [7] http://www.boingboing.net/2007/10/21/ninjas-attack-richar.html [8] http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-896171.html [9] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/02/ballmer_linux_is_a_cancer/ [10] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/gpl-american-way.html [11] http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS6229131777.html [12] http://www.linux-foundation.org/publications/linuxkerneldevelopment.php _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
