Free as in Freedom

Book: Free as in Freedom. Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software. By Sam Williams. O'Reilly, 2002

Biography

URL = http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/index.html

Chapter 1: http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/ch01.html

Description

"Free as in Freedom interweaves biographical snapshots of GNU project founder Richard Stallman with the political, social and economic history of the free software movement.

Starting with how it all began--a desire for software code from Xerox to make the printing more efficient--to the continuing quest for free software that exists today. It is a movement which Stallman has at turns defined, directed and manipulated. And the goal of the book is to document how Stallman's own personal evolution has done much to shape notions of what free software is and should be.

Discover how Richard's childhood and teenage experiences as well as his years at Harvard and MIT made him the man he is today. The book's narrative style includes many candid quotes (like any other type existed) from Richard and his Mother about his life, education, and work providing a entertaining, thought-provoking, and some frustrating look at RMS and Free Software Foundation (FSF).

The author had the opportunity of numerous meetings with Stallman to uncover what's behind those piercing eyes. Also, peppered throughout Free as in Freedom are insights from FSF supporters, detractors, the early MIT hackers, and those who knew him in high school and college.

If anything, the current software marketplace has made Stallman's logic-based rhetoric and immovable personality more persuasive. In a rapidly changing world people need a fixed reference point, and Stallman has become that reference point for many in the software world." (http://www.freetechbooks.com/free-as-in-freedom-richard-stallman-s-crusade-for-free-software-t127.html)