
25 years of GNU - support software freedom - tjr
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/25-years-of-gnu
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alnayyir
I'm glad that GNU led the way on software freedom, but I cannot help but feel
like the GPL is going the way of old blue collar unions.

Useful, nay, necessary at one time, but have now outgrown their original
mandate and now exist unto themselves.

~~~
startingup
Exactly my feeling. My thesis is that FSF achieved its popularity in the
heyday of Microsoft monopoly serving as a counter-force, and as Microsoft's
hegemony declined (thanks in part to FSF's efforts), it has become less
relevant. Open source (I intentionally do not want to use Stallman's language
on this) is thriving but FSF is not.

GPL is way too dogmatic, and given the fact that _most_ free software actually
is written by people with a paycheck from those hated proprietary software
companies (at any rate, companies that definitely do not buy into FSF dogma),
there always has been an underlying tension between their philosophy and the
vast majority of contributors to open source. Basically Stallman wants them to
feel dirty getting that paycheck.

As a result, we are moving to a different phase in the open source world -
focus on code, not on the politics.

I want to add an illustration of the perverse effects GPL produced in
practice. MySQL - now in the hands of Larry Ellison ... there must be some
irony there - perfectly shows how to use GPL in a very "interesting" way. I
have dealt with MySQL salesmen on several occasions, so I know how they "use"
GPL. Basically they would assert with full confidence that your use-case
(whatever it may be) would violate GPL, so you have to pony up unless you want
all your code to be GPL. They knew how to exploit "GPL fear" in companies, but
would back down in most cases once you bring a lawyer.

That is the practical real world effect of dogma. My prediction: MySQL will be
orphaned intentionally by Oracle. No one else is going to touch it because
forking the MySQL code will not let anyone escape the famous Oracle salesmen.

~~~
ja27
FSF (and X Windows) freed me from DEC and Sun proprietary software long before
anyone worried about Microsoft.

~~~
startingup
My point was that FSF achieved its maximal influence during the reign of
Microsoft. And I argue that is not a coincidence.

~~~
omouse
_during the reign of Microsoft_

Microsoft is still in control. What's their market share for Windows machines?
90+%?

~~~
nestlequ1k
What's their market share on servers? How much time do people spend on the
internet?

Most windows machines these days are dumb clients to the web, so that fact
that Microsoft provides the software for this doesn't seem like a huge win.

~~~
RyanMcGreal
As long as customers continue to pay for the OS on those "dumb clients", it's
still a win for Microsoft.

~~~
omouse
Exactly. It'll still be lucrative for the hardware dealers to bundle Microsoft
with their computers.

~~~
RyanMcGreal
My most recent computer purchase was a modest dual-core PC with 350 GB hard
drive. It cost only $350 CDN without an operating system - but it was
surprisingly difficult to find an assembled computer for sale that didn't come
bundled with an OS.

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spicyj
This is actually the _end_ of the 25th anniversary celebration, so it's the
26th anniversary. Doesn't sound nearly as impressive.

