Lessons of Free Software History●Paul Elliott●pelliott@BlackPatchPanel.com●

Summary about what can be learned from Free
Software history.

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http://www.Free.BlackPatchPanel.com/pme/linux/history-bookmarks.html●

http://www.Free.BlackPatchPanel.com/pme/linux/meaning.pdf

Why does Linux and other Freesoftware succeed?
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GNU/Linux is a fixin'
to achieve world
domination.
Corporate
theoreticians are inshock.
How could thishappen?
What is happening?

Why?

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The Proprietary developers have notbeen idle.
●●●●I don't know how many sucky versions ofwindoze and other proprietary software hascome out.
Billions of dollars have been spent paying
proprietary developers.
If the problem were a software coding methodproblem, why has it not been fixed? That is,
why does proprietary software still suck?
The answer is, it is not a software coding
method problem, and it can not be fixed.

There is an answer from the historyof free software.

The answer is very simple.
The answer repeats endlessly in many separate
incidents.

Freedom works, control doesn't.

In almost every fork....

The “free” branch succeeded and the “control”
branch failed.

If someone pays money to install aring in your nose, is it smart to saveon the cost of a hacksaw?

RMS is the hero who discovered thepower of Freedom in Software
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Experiences at MIT
caused his discovery.
encoded discovery
into GNU manifesto,
GPL.
Applied discovery increating gcc, GNUutilities.
Failed to apply
discovery in HURD.
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By Jin WickedHURD failed.
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Used “Bondage andDiscipline” OSdevelopment
technique fromacademia calledmicrokernel.
HURD neveradvanced to the point
it could be “set free”.
That is, let many
developers work on it“Bazaar” style.

LINUX succeeds.
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Without understanding
RMS' principles, Linus
applied them “just forfun”.
Rejected the microkernel
and other forms of B&D
programming.
Created something thatran quickly.
Set it free, so that otherdevelopers could help(bazaar style).

LINUX succeeds.
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Only a small percentage
of today's LINUX code
was actually written byLinus.
Linus uses soundjudgment in deciding
what contributed code toinclude.
If others disagree, they
are free to fork.

GNU/LINUX and other Free
Software can not be controlled.
●●●If Linus (or any other free software author) wereto go crazy or quit, other developers would
inevitably take over, forking the project ifnecessary.
Who are you going to sue, buy, or co-opt? No
person or organization owns free software. Can
MicroSuck sue to take away the free speechrights of thousands of free software developers
scattered all over the globe? Source Code =speech.
There is no central committee to mess things
up or “compromise”.

The GPL protects GNU/LINUX●●●Because of the so called “viral clause”,
GNU/LINUX can not be attacked by embrace,extend, extinguish.
GPL provides that any extension must beGPLed. (“viral clause”)
Therefore if the extension contains any positivefeatures, these features can be embraced by
the original branch! So extinguish does notwork!

Nightmare scenario●If by chance, one of
the BSDs had
become the dominant
free OS instead of
LINUX, it would havebeen alreadyattacked by MS usingembrace, extend, andextinguish.

Nightmare scenario●That is, MS would
have created awindows/BSD hybrid
capable of running
both windows andBSD programs. As
time went on, theBSD side of thismonstrosity would
have been “extended”
thereby“extinguishing” theoriginal BSD!

The GPL stops hybrid monster
creation!

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If proprietary code is mixed with GPLed code, in a distributed product, thenby the terms of the GPL, that proprietary code must be released under theGPL.
This is totally unacceptable to proprietary developers. The proprietary natureof their code is the indispensable basis of all of their tricks and traps and it is
the only reason they get paid! To them, it is sine qua non.
This stops hybrid monster creation.
It is also the true reason that the GPL is hated by proprietary developers andtheir lackeys!

Free software is a spontaneousorder.
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Ancient Chinese philosopher Chuang-tzu may
have been first to discover theory of“spontaneous order”. Friedrich Hayek is the firstmodern advocate of the theory.
Other examples spontaneous orders.
– Natural languages. (only the French seek to control

the development of language, proof that it is a badidea.)– Free markets – developed in antiquity– Organic evolution itself!

Free Software recipe for success.
●Let go of the urge to control.

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Don't use “bondage and discipline” techniques.

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Create something that runs quickly.

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Set it Free, accepting the input from many otherdevelopers.
Guide the result. If others disagree, they arefree to fork.

Let Freedom Ring!

copyright●●This document contains a number of trademarked logos. They are included
by virtue of fair use. I obviously, do not hold the copyright to those logos. Ifyou copy this document, you are responsible to insure that your use of
those logos is fair use.
The rest of this document is–Copyright (c) 2008 Paul Elliott.

–Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document–

under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2–

or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;–with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-CoverTexts.

–A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU–Free Documentation License".