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Richard Stallman looks back at 25 years of the GNU project
- zitterbewegung 18y agoIt looks like so far the GNU project has been a huge success.
- gaius 18y agoOne thing remains: Hurd. You must ship the Hurd. Then, and only then, a true success will you be.
- eru 18y agoWhat's wrong with that Linux kernel? And all the BSDs?
- rw 18y agoDid you read the OP? A direct quote: "For a long time, I just went on thinking that, even though Torvalds doesn't agree with the free software movement, at least we have a free kernel. But then I found that proprietary firmware was being put into the source code of Linux. So, in fact, Linux as released by Torvalds is not free software."
- a-priori 18y agoI don't see what the problem is. If you don't want proprietary firmware, don't include drivers for those devices in your configuration...
- rw 18y agoIt mainly has to do with the opportunity/cost of companies deciding whether or not to develop open firmware. If a proprietary version is included in the kernel, they are very unlikely to bother to go through the cost of relicensing the software.
- eru 18y agoOK, that's a point. What about the BSDs?
- albertcardona 18y agoExcept OpenBSD, the other BSD's have just as much firmware binary blobs as linux does [disclaimer: I am a linux user].
- greyman 18y agoDespite Richard.
- rams 18y agoMore relevant to HN readers is the fact that RMS's efforts have been a major factor in lowering the barrier for starting new companies. Almost all startups funded by YC are based on free/open source software. Sometimes people let his personality come in the way. But RMS has permanently changed the game.