Excerpted and adapted from the book “Free For All” by Peter Wayner.
The meanings attached with the word “free” are one of the best marketing devices. Every marketer knows that for a free cookie, people will come to your far away store. Microsoft saw Netscape emerging as a competitor and they gave away Internet Explorer for free. This of course got Netscape out of business and put IE at the top. It’s ironic that Microsoft is facing the heat now with a bunch of people who started giving out an operating system for “free”.
The word “free” has a much more complicated meaning in the free software movement. In fact, many people who give away their software don’t even like the word “free” and prefer to use “open” to describe the process of sharing. In the case of free software, this is not just an ad campaign to make people feel good about buying a product. The word “free” is more about a way of life. The folks who write the code throw around the word in much the same way the Founding Fathers of the United States used it. To many of them, the free software revolution was also conceived in liberty and dedicated to certain principles like the fact that all men and women have certain inalienable rights to change, modify, and do whatever they please with their software in the pursuit of happiness.
“Free For All” documents the history of how Linux, Free Software Foundation, and everything around them evolved. It talks about all the hackers who lay foundation for the movement and supported it. The story is not fiction; it’s filled up with details of how things actually happened. So it can get a little dry to read, but I still recommend it to all who are interested in learning what shaped the movement that is reshaping the software world today.