From the Editors: What's GNU? 25 years!
By SD Times News Team
February 15, 2009 —
(Page 1 of 2)
It’s been about a quarter of a century since Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation unveiled two important milestones in the open-source movement: the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation. From them came very important projects like Emacs, the GNU Operating System, the GNU General Public License and the GNU Compiler Collection.
Whether you like or dislike Linux (which was built using GNU tools), or whether you admire or revile the GPL, there’s no doubt that the Free Software Foundation has had a profoundly significant impact on nearly every aspect of software development. Yes, Stallman is a polarizing figure. Yet when you look back at his track records, from Emacs to the GPL, from the gcc to Linux, his work has touched us all.
That’s not to say that everything about the Free Software Foundation and Stallman (it’s almost impossible to separate the two) is admirable. Stallman’s long-standing grudge against Linus Torvalds gets in the way. So too does Stallman’s habit of insisting that reporters refer to Linux as GNU/Linux. Sorry, rms, that battle has been lost. It’s time to move on.
Hmm. Do you think that Stallman will move on? Of course not. That’s not in his nature. He’s a never-give-up, never-surrender fighter and has been since he began writing his license and operating system. Nomenclature notwithstanding, he and the FSF have been remarkably successful in creating both software and licenses that have profoundly influenced both open-source and commercial development.
Since the advent of GPLv3, however, the question is now, “Where does the Free Software Foundation go from here?” For better or worse, the organization’s latest battles haven’t been technological, but legal. Stallman, the FSF and its partner, the Software Freedom Law Center, are now focusing on corporate compliance with their licenses. They’re not innovating, they’re litigating.
Yes, a license without compliance is valueless. Yet we’d rather that the standard-bearers of the open-source movement return to their traditional role of winning hearts and minds. We’d rather they talk to developers instead of attorneys.
Related Search Term(s): GNU, GPL, Linux, open source, AMD, Intel, Microsoft
Share this link: http://sdt.bz/33270
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Zeichick’s Take: Radio moves from analog waveforms to digital packets
Streaming radio highlights the need for streaming applications to be designed to take up as little bandwidth as possible
|
|
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
|
|
Appcelerator Acquires Cocoafish to Add Instant Mobile Cloud Capabilities to its Industry Leading Titanium Platform
Appcelerator Offers Messaging, Social, Location and Storage Mobile Cloud Services to All Mobile App Publishers
|
|
ComponentOne Releases a Collection of 40+ UI Widgets Powered by HTML5 and jQuery
ComponentOne has announced the 2012 release of Wijmo: a kit of UI widgets for HTML5 and jQuery development
|
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
|
|
Top five apps to manage your workload
Web applications offer new ways to track your “to-do” lists
|
|
Not so fast when it comes to testing in the cloud
Developers face outsourcing, virtual lab management and mobile devices as obstacles
|
|
Xceed releases UX-focused suite for Microsoft’s WPF
"Blendables" helps match user experiences to developer visions
|
Are you at risk for burnout?
Burnout is a severe problem and it can strike at any time. Here's how to tell if you are nearing the edge.
|
|
Agility, mom, and apple pie
If we're to evaluate the state-of-the-art in software development, we should start with the values espoused in the Agile Manifesto.
|
|
RIM woos developers with free tablet
How do you get more apps ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook? By giving every developer a free tablet, of course!
|
|
GitHire: Use Headhunters to Find Your Perfect Programmer
Are you a hiring manager tired of scouring the job boards? Check out this new service that will find 5 people interested in your jobs.
|
The Hidden Costs of Software Licensing
Moving beyond paper-based software licensing to more flexible, software-based licensing is a business decision. There is a growing trend tow...
|
|
Case Study: You May Need a Development Mechanic
As a contractor for a major financial player in Germany, SOBEGE, a German-based consultancy specializing in embedded IT and web services, wa...
|
|
Ensuring Software Quality at a Major International Bank
One of the world’s leading international banks has adopted AgitarOne technology for delivering generated unit tests for their Java software...
|
|
Load Testing Adobe Flex Applications
Adobe Flex applications may be different from applications you’ve worked with before. For classic HTML web applications, the server does all...
|
Related Articles
The Free Software Foundation's birthday wishes for the GPL
GNU and the GPL are celebrating milestone anniversaries this year. We asked leaders in the software development industry to chime in with their thoughts on these two influential elements of the industry and of open-source development in particular.
|
Microsoft joins AMD, Intel in mass layoffs
Citing an 8% decline in Windows client revenue, Microsoft announced that 5,000 jobs would be cut, 1,400 immediately. AMD and Intel are also cutting jobs in the face of weakening PC sales, but all companies maintain that they are keeping their major projects afloat.
|
Sam Ramji: GPL is challenging for Microsoft
Microsoft declares the GPL to be important, but its exclusivity makes it cumbersome to work with. The Software Freedom Law Center's Bradley Kuhn believes that Microsoft is acting in bad faith.
|