From the Editors: What's GNU? 25 years!

By SD Times News Team

February 15, 2009 —

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.

It is not clear to us what Stallman and the FSF intend to do next to build upon their success. We’re sure that there’s going to be a lot more to come. Born in 1953, Stallman has many fruitful years of activism, compiler optimization, complaining about Linux and license rewriting ahead of him. Let’s hope that the next 25 years are famous for more creativity along the lines of Emacs and the gcc, not an endless stream of GPL lawsuits.

Tightening belts
Microsoft, Intel, AMD: They’re among the companies laying off employees in the face of today’s economic slowdown. Call it a recession, call it whatever you want, but organizations large and small are tightening their belts and reducing their payroll.

On the grand scale, the layoffs in the technology sector are small. Sure, that’s no consolation to those who have been laid off, and we empathize with everyone who has lost a job or seen a reduction in pay, hours or benefits. Still, we must acknowledge that the tech industry is faring better off than other industries. Around the same time that Microsoft, Intel and AMD announced their cuts, heavy construction equipment maker Caterpillar slashed 20,000 jobs.

The good news is that, long term, the prognosis for our industry is strong. Software developers and development managers are valuable employees. Yes, anyone is obviously vulnerable when companies go out of business or institute massive layoffs, and yes, it can take some time to find a new position. Yet we believe that when the economy recovers, organizations will set a priority to rebuild their battered software development teams.

Related Search Term(s): GNU, GPL, Linux, open source, AMD, Intel, Microsoft

Share this link: http://www.sdtimes.com/link/33270

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.

Add comment

Name*
Email*
Country

Comment
Preview

News on Monday
more>>
SharePoint Tech Report
more>>

Download Current Issue
ISSUE 3/15/2010 PDF

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Receive the print Edition?

Google Code turns 5
Google Code Turns 5, and adds a Paxos Algorithm to make the system more stable and reliable.
03/17/2010 11:16 AM EST

Test your Visual Studio 2010 know-how
Microsoft is offering free beta certification exams for Visual Studio 2010.
03/17/2010 11:08 AM EST

Microsoft lifts the hood on IE9
Microsoft is previewing IE9.
03/16/2010 01:10 PM EST