
Happy birthday to GNU: celebrating 34 years of the free software movement - jrepinc
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/happy-birthday-to-gnu-celebrating-34-years-of-the-free-software-movement
======
madmax108
Just crossposting from the article, but every year on this day I donate to the
FSF. You can as well at:
[https://my.fsf.org/donate](https://my.fsf.org/donate)

Remember that almost every tinfoil scenario that RMS has been preaching about
has come true in the last dozen or so years, and it is important, now more
than ever, to be able to defend the rights and freedoms of computer users.

You can also become an FSF member at:
[https://my.fsf.org/associate/support_freedom/join_fsf](https://my.fsf.org/associate/support_freedom/join_fsf)

------
drallison
The Free Software Foundation and the GNU project have had an enormous impact
on people's lives. We all owe a significant debt of gratitude to the many
people who have worked on FSF/Gnu products. Even more significant is the ethos
involved. Where would we be today were it not for the free software community.

~~~
nerdponx
Indeed. GNU is way more than Linux. GNU Parallel, the ubiquitous GNU Make (did
you know ":=" is a GMU extension?), GNU versions of Grep and Sed that have
some really nice quality of life options, and the GPL which for better or
worse has "infected" a lot of really important software.

That said, it's a shame that GNOME, Gtk, and Glibc are evidently not the best
(I use none of them but I have read many complaints). Lots of other old,
weird, and/or semi-abandoned projects too like Taler, the GNU version of 'yes'
[0] and Hurd of course. What makes some GNU tools so great and others not-so-
great? And where does this "everything but the kitchen sink" mentality come
from with respect to options and configuration in GNU programs?

0:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14542938](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14542938)

~~~
rekado
What's not to like about the GNU C library? It's used on the vast majority of
GNU+Linux distributions.

> Lots of other old, weird, and/or semi-abandoned projects too like Taler, ...

GNU Taler is none of these things.

> And where does this "everything but the kitchen sink" mentality come from
> with respect to options and configuration in GNU programs?

Did you know that GNU Emacs had an overflowing kitchen sink as its logo for a
while? (I still prefer that logo over the current logo, actually.)

~~~
agumonkey
> GNU Emacs had an overflowing kitchen sink as its logo

oh wow,
[http://ergoemacs.org/misc/emacs_overflowing_kitchen_sink_ico...](http://ergoemacs.org/misc/emacs_overflowing_kitchen_sink_icon.html)

pretty nice, and with dataflow !

------
marksomnian
RMS may be seen by many as a zealot or maybe even an extremist, and I
personally disagree with some of his views, but it's clear that without him
the open-source world would be in a completely different place.

Hat tip.

~~~
adtac
There wouldn't _be_ a place for free and open software without him. I'm
absolutely convinced of this -- he is a combination of good will, great
programming talent, insane dedication who is not motivated by money.

It's just a shame he'll never be as well known to the general public as
someone like Steve Jobs.

~~~
AceJohnny2
> _insane dedication_ who is not motivated by money

You can say that again. I believe he's pretty far on Asperger's?

I view RMS as one pole of the philosophical spectrum of free software (the
other being entirely proprietary). An uncompromising absolutist, his views
can't survive contact with the real world intact, but they can influence the
landscape as he exerts pressure on it.

And he has proven visionary and right time and time again.

I don't agree with many things he says, but I do appreciate the direction he's
pulled the industry in. For that, he has my continued respect.

~~~
jimmies
> An uncompromising absolutist, his views can't survive contact with the real
> world intact, but they can influence the landscape as he exerts pressure on
> it.

Well, somehow his views survived.

GNU happened and is alive today. Billions of people are using it or a variant
of it. In fact, GNU/Linux is arguably the most successful OS in the planet.
The GNU has projects that power almost every computer and every mobile phone
and it is inside many embedded systems today. There are even laptops that run
strictly on free software, which hasn't happenned until recently.

What more you want?

~~~
AceJohnny2
> _What more you want?_

Broader adoption of the GPLv3 and AGPLv3, for one thing.

Getting Apple to get over their aversion of the GPL, for another. Ever
wondered why macOS shipped with antiquated version of Bash, Emacs, Make...?

~~~
thomastjeffery
> Getting Apple to get over their aversion of the GPL

Apple isn't going to join the Free Software Movement. If they do, they will be
something entirely different, using the same name.

Apple's business model is based on proprietary software, and limiting users.

~~~
tjr
Apple does sell some proprietary software for a fee, and they give away a lot
of proprietary software for no cost. But it seems to me that most of their
business model is selling hardware.

I wonder what impact moving to all Free Software would actually have on their
business?

Or at least, making all of the software that they don't charge for, Free
Software?

~~~
thomastjeffery
> they give away a lot of proprietary software for no cost.

That is explicitly not the definition of free software, which is "free" as in
"freedom", not "free beer". The monetary exchange for software copies is a
separate topic.

I do wish Stallman picked a less ambiguous word like "libre", but here we are.

> But it seems to me that most of their business model is selling hardware.

That's what I'm talking about. IOS is explicitly designed to be a "walled
garden". That design is directly contradictory to free software design. It
requires that users are _unable_ to do certain things in IOS, meaning it
requires IOS to be proprietary, _and_ irriplaceable.

> I wonder what impact moving to all Free Software would actually have on
> their business?

That is a good question. Unfortunately, Apple (as it exists today) will quite
certainly never show is.

> Or at least, making all of the software that they don't charge for, Free
> Software?

Any user level software would not be needed for their "walled garden"
approach, so there is nothing but Apple's current mindset preventing them from
releasing the source. Maybe someday they will realize this, after all, their
current open source projects (LLVM/clang, etc.) have certainly flourished.

------
0xFFC
Hats off to RMS.

Whom I love and respect deeply.

Thank you for all have you done for free software.

P.S. I am from small third world country. Right now I am applying and starting
PhD in one of universities in USA and my field is basically OS and File
systems. I have said this, to mention one thing created the interest in me to
study and persue CS when I was teenager. And it was GNU.

I remember first days when I installed GNU operating system when at 2002 when
I was 11. The idea and openness of Free software literally changed my life.

~~~
jimmies
Same here.

I am forever indebted to RMS and his crazy vision. May he be with the world
for a long time.

It has played a big role in turning my life around from a college drop-out to
almost getting my PhD in the USA now. If I had just stuck with proprietary
software, I don't think I would know what I know today. It is that the idea
that you actually could touch and understand the world, given enough time and
dedication in a small, hot, dusty corner in a third world country with a cheap
computer is extremely, extremely powerful. There is nothing else like it.
Especially when I compare to many biologist friends from the same country as
mine, they are much more disadvantaged compared to American ones, because of
not having the $1M equipment and software they need back home. In the software
world, I always feel like I had the level playing field, and the rest was just
my dedication.

As I am almost done with this stage, I am seriously considering devoting a big
part of my life to developing free software so everyone will have the same
chance I had. At the same time, I feel the world has moved on, and again
social mobility now is not as high as when the PC was the king anymore (but
maybe it's just because I am just in a depression now, the world changes
alright).

~~~
carussell
Please look into effective altruism. Relevant discussion is here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13678952](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13678952)

~~~
jimmies
Thanks for the directions. I will see how I best engage in the community, to
be honest, now I don't feel like super enthusiastic about the industry. So I
might just take a break some time and write whatever the hell I want.

------
smhenderson
Thank you to RMS and the entire GNU community for their tireless efforts and
the many wonderful projects they have created and shared with the world.

Whether you call it FS, FLOSS or OSS none of it would be where it is today
without GNU.

Here's to the next 34!

------
vfclists
The GNU vision of the desktop needs to be rebooted and more dedication and
skill applied to it.

I got into a discussion on it on the emacs reddit,
[https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/701v90/guile_needs_a...](https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/701v90/guile_needs_a_community_elispemacs_needs_a/)
but it seems a fair number of people have forgotten about or don't quite get
it.

------
overcast
What I always found bizarre about Stallman is the lengths he goes to make
himself anonymous(no online purchases, fetching websites remotely and then
emailing output). Yet at the same time, he's so prolific publicly in
everything he preaches about.

[https://stallman.org/stallman-computing.html](https://stallman.org/stallman-
computing.html)

~~~
peatmoss
> prolific publicly in everything he preaches about.

I think that's the key point: he's private where he's given no consent (i.e.
being tracked on the web), and is public where he has chosen to... preach.

~~~
overcast
To the extent that you need a remote system to retrieve a webpage, and then
email it to you so you can read it?! I mean come on here.

~~~
peatmoss
You can argue that is extreme (it's certainly more extreme than I'm able /
willing to do), but your earlier comment was claiming a disconnect between his
web browsing habits and the public persona that he maintains. I don't see his
cultivated public persona at odds with his private desire to be un-tracked on
the web.

------
smith333
RMS is both extremely capable and strong willed activist which is very
combination.

