Foundational Ideas and People in Open Source/Free Software Movement
This week I offer a change of pace in my blog by presenting some foundational people and ideas that the open source movement is based on. I include plenty of links to enhance your understanding as well as provide some scavenger hunt questions in hopes that you will explore the beginnings of open source.
I am sure I missed some people and ideas and look forward to seeing your contributions in the comments section to provide even more history on open source. * Eric S. Raymond’s classic “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” essay on his observations about open source first presented in 1997. A must read for anyone looking to understand the open source revolution* How is Free Software different than Open Source? Essay by Richard M. Stallman in his book Free Software, Free Society: The Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman * Who coined the term open source? Hint – 6 people including Eric S. Raymond (and not Richard Stallman) held a meeting in 1998. Quick search in Google should turn up the answer* How is copyleft different than copyright? * In January 1989, Richard Stallman introduced what software license that is currently used in about 50 – 60% of open source software projects? * Here is the first email sent from Linus Torvalds on the Linux OS and a site with all the follow-up emails sent from Linus at the start of Linux project From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds) I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and I’ve currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work.
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
Summary: small poll for my new operating system
Message-ID:
Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki
Hello everybody out there using minix –
professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing
since april, and is starting to get ready. I’d like any feedback on
things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat
(same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons)
among other things).
This implies that I’ll get something practical within a few months, and
I’d like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions
are welcome, but I won’t promise I’ll implement them 🙂
