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The press release says: > The free availability of Linux on the Web swiftly caused a chain-reaction leading to further development and fine-tuning worth the eq
by loup-vaillant 15y ago
The press release says:
> The free availability of Linux on the Web swiftly caused a chain-reaction leading to further development and fine-tuning worth the equivalent of 73,000 man-years. […] Linus Torvalds’ achievements have had a great impact on shared software development, networking and the openness of the web, making it accessible for millions, if not billions.
Wait a minute, shouldn't we credit Stallman for this chain reaction? Without the GPL, Linux would probably have stayed proprietary, and unsuccessful. Without the GNU system, computing would probably be much less open than it is now (I don't know what the impact on BSD would have been, though).
It seems that saying "Linux" instead of "GNU/Linux" has a significant impact after all. Or did Stallman got this very prize before Torlvalds?
- SamReidHughes 15y agoNo it wouldn't. There existed free software before, during, and after the advent of the GPL and the FSF that had nothing to do with Stallman's work.
- loup-vaillant 15y agoMust I remind you that the FSF wrote the fucking Gnu Compiler Collection? It made available a high quality compiler for free (both meanings), and used the GPL to keep it that way. It had a great impact on the expectation we now have for language implementations (namely, they should be free). Linux is traditionally build with GCC if that's count for anything. The fact is, these days, it's quite hard for Free Software to escape GCC. LLVM didn't take over the world yet. Richard Stallman may be ugly[1], old, and asocial, but he's not irrelevant. [1] You'd be surprised how much it counts. Compared to him, Linus is hot.