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Origins of the Open Source Movement
Conceptually, the open source software movement began with the GNU project started by Richard Stallman in 1983. GNU was a project established to create a Unix-compatible system of software that would be completely free, to be copied and given away, and that would provide access to all of the source code. Linux exists today mainly because of the tools created for the GNU project.The statements from the GNU Manifesto below describe Richard Stallman’s view of Free Software.
GNU is not in the public domain. Everyone will be permitted to modify and redistribute GNU, but no distributor will be allowed to restrict its further redistribution.That is to say, proprietary modifications will not be allowed. I want to make sure that all versions of GNU remain free.The Free Software Foundation was formed to aid in the coordination, development, and maintenance of the GNU project. The Free Software Foundation(FSF) identifies their products as “free software”.
However, when the FSF refers to “free software” they state that “free” does not refer to “price” but rather to freedom. The FSF compares free software to “free speech” (as opposed to “free beer”).Prior to GNU and FSF, free software was generally public domain. The FSF addressed the issues of public domain software by copyrighting all of their software. Along with the copyright is a license allowing the use of the software but including certain restrictions.
The GNU General Public License,or GPL, enforces the goals of the FSF by ensuring that the software can be copied, distributed, modified, and extended, but requires that the software always be free and include source code (which the FSF sees as a condition ofsoftware freedom). Applying the GPL is often referred to as “copylefting”.
