I have spoken on numerous occasions on free software philosophy placed in the context of the development of software technology. I notice that many younger engineers have no idea on what computing was like before GNU/Linux became popular. For some years GNU was available without Linux. Bash, Emacs, Gcc, Gawk, etc. were used on Sun and Hewlett Packard workstations and MS-DOS PCs. In those days GNU was praised by users for its high reliability and portability.
But outside the computing community, the idea of free software was little known. Most everyone associated with software, it seemed, was chanting that strengthening of intellectual property rights was most necessary for the industry. Richard Stallman was alone. To me he looked like a man shouting into the gale. In other words it was an uphill struggle. Many people paid no attention to what he was saying. The greatest encouragement for supporters came from the fact that the quality of free software surpassed that of proprietary alternatives. I do not deny that people other than Richard Stallman made important contributions to free software. When you speak of the history of free software, or more generally the history of information technology, you are free to name whomever you consider the key contributors. I do so in my lectures. I don't know about LibrePlanet for I have never participated, but in general, I notice that many speakers in software events spend most of their allotted time talking about their own achievements. As such there is not enough education to younger engineers on how the movement and technology evolved, especially in the early years. I believe this should be an important consideration when deciding who should speak. Akira Urushibata _______________________________________________ libreplanet-discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
