Free as in Freedom is a book ( open book rather) which narrates Richard M. Stallman's journey of Free Software. I finished reading three chapters and can't leave this book aside. It's fantastically narrated and articulated written. The depth of details and style of narration shows that Sam Williams, the author, has taken a hell lot of efforts in bringing the life and career of RMS to larger audiences. It's a typical biography kind of book that tells us how a simple incident of a jamming a printer's paper in MIT's AI lab could be the harbinger of a big movement of open software. Also an incident when a professor at Carnegie Mellon denies to share his copy of a program with Stallman has a tremendous effect on Stallman's mind that it totally changes his path of career.Stallman's life, his great contribution towards Free Software Movement, the respect that he earned in programmer's community all over the world by his elite yet free programs definitely deserve the attention. Almost everyone who is somehow related with computers knows Richard Stallman. I remember watching a video of his speech on my friend's computer but did not get a chance to read about this revolutionary hacker. This book will certainly add to my knowledge and introduce me to the concept and history of Free Software Movement.
One more notable thing about this book is, for its electronic version, you can pay in free software manner, i.e. by contributing towards it. The book is distributed under GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) , so that we can help improving the work and can create a personalized version and release that version under the same license. Just like any other free software program, this book will also accept patches.... Interesting !!!, I haven't heard of any other book which accepts patches !!!
So, that's what I want to say about it... 11 more chapters to go... I need to finish it up as soon as possible :)
7 comments:
Hey, do lend it to me sometime..
Hope rest of the chapters are as nice as first three:)
Just click on the link 'Free as in Freedom' and you will get the book there.
I guess the rest of the chapters will be more interesting... :)
To get some more perspectives on the open source revolution I recommend
Open Sources from O'reilly. (It's also an open book)
Here is the link..
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/toc.html
@mohsin
I would definitely like to contribute towards Open Source. By the way, Open Source and Free Softwares are two different movements... Correct me if I am wrong.
@Onkar.
You are absolutely right dude, though I think they are related. Open Source movement started because of the (wrong) view of RMS as a lunatic, FSF as communist and GPL as viral, which repelled many a businesses. And the Open Source Definition incorporates the GNU freedoms. The Free Software movement is rooted in the issue of ethics, while the Open Source movement takes a more practical route.
@mohsin
Thanks for the clarification.
this book is available for free in html format here:
http://oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/
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