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GNU turns 25

theregister.co.uk — Today the GNU project celebrates its quarter-century. It was on 27 September 1983 that MIT slacker Richard M Stallman made his announcement that he intended to create a complete Unix-like system that would be completely open and hackable, giving anyone the right to modify and distribute the work.

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  • record200, on 09/04/2008, -1/+17Cheers!
  • glinsvad, on 09/04/2008, -1/+23All hail GNU!
  • KZodron, on 09/04/2008, -4/+22Stallman rules
  • benbread, on 09/04/2008, -2/+28Sorry if i'm missing something obvious here but:

    "It was on 27 September 1983 that MIT slacker Richard M Stallman made his announcement..."

    Shouldn't we be celebrating on the 27th, not today?
    • KZodron, on 09/04/2008, -2/+15Getafix74 expected it to take 23 days to hit the Digg frontpage. Ahaahaah. Yea.
    • mem2, on 09/04/2008, -3/+2Its as good a reason to drink as any tonight and that night.
  • mem2, on 09/04/2008, -1/+10All your Server Base belong to us.
    • glinsvad, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3Damn it, it's "All your Server Base are belong to us". Good one, though
      • mem2, on 09/08/2008, -0/+1Damn it, who gives a ***** - crappy internet meme from a crappy games crappy translation. Its funny, misquoted or not :P
  • franksands, on 09/04/2008, -1/+8The question is: does he still have those two katanas under the bed?

    Seriously, though, congrats on the quarter century, it sure is deserved.
  • nothin2g, on 09/04/2008, -4/+4GNUtella FTW!
  • c00l2sv, on 09/04/2008, -1/+8It changed the world, it changed us!
    Long live GNU!!!
    :)
  • triad203, on 09/04/2008, -1/+14GNU's Not UNIX.

    HOOORAY!
  • gerryk, on 09/04/2008, -1/+9Slacker, eh? Let's see... Emacs, gcc, gdb.. yeah, definitely the work of a slacker.

    Anyhow, hb GNU & congrats rms
    • cmansley, on 09/05/2008, -0/+4Yes yes, in addition while he did all that, he also graduated from Harvard magna cum laude earning a BA in Physics in 1974! I wish I could slack that hard.
  • yertthedigger, on 09/04/2008, -7/+4Negative comment about RMS. Will be inevitably buried for going against the grain, but author want to point out OSS projects such as FreeBSD and OpenBSD that are free as in public domain that are very successful, and yet RMS attacks these groups for offering more freedom to its users.
    • 4321234, on 09/04/2008, -0/+3Free to modify and bogart.
    • gerryk, on 09/04/2008, -1/+5One example of such 'freedom' is Windows 2000's use of the BSD TCP/IP stack... it was never credited, MS contributed zero code back to the project, and they immediately closed off all the sources.
      This could never happen under the GPL, despite such as Linksys trying to pull a fast one in the past.
      • josejimenez, on 09/04/2008, -8/+1Counterpoint: If GPL contributors wrote such incredibly brilliant code, there would never be a need to contribute back to the project.
      • jay019, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2@josejimenez
        Whoa, all I can say is ROFLOL @ you!
      • buu700, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1@josejimenez
        Counterpoint: Yes, but hypothetical (unrealistic?) scenarios are completely irrelevant when discussing the merits of BSD licenses v. the GPL.
    • felipe1982, on 09/04/2008, -1/+2"FreeBSD and OpenBSD that are free as in public domain"
      This is a totally false statement. They are NOT in public domain.
      • buu700, on 09/05/2008, -1/+1Reread the statement. He said _as in_ public domain. Not necessarily actually public domain. The point was that BSD licenses are so close to public domain that they might as well be public domain.
    • sirhomer, on 09/04/2008, -0/+8Freedom is a complex idea. There exists this idea is that in order to have certain freedoms, others must be taken away. For instance, in the case of murder, laws against murder take away your freedom to kill other people. It is, a restraint and a restriction. But our society (I hope) have decided that the right to kill other people is not stronger then the right to life.

      Another case in fact: the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights starts off with language such as "Congress shall not" - the Bill of Rights are actually a set of restrictions. But these restrictions ensure freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and other rights we believe are fundamental.

      The GPL is a set of restrictions, not for the sake of restriction, but for the sake of protecting freedoms the FSF believe are fundamental. It's a Bill of Rights for software.
  • tao52nyc, on 09/04/2008, -18/+2RMS thinks ALL software should be "free". I've never understood his economic model, where, presumably, everyone hacks at apps just for the joy of creation, but no one actually earns a living, as "selling" your work is somehow morally wrong. And while Stallmanites insist that FOSS products are "just as good" as commercial products like Adobe CS3 and MS Office, they have yet to convince any but the most fringe users of this. Personally, I like NeoOffice, and even convince myself to use it once in awhile. But the presentation manager looks like an old version of PowerPoint - it's no Keynote, definitely. Plus, I'm a big Dreamweaver fan, and while there may be a FOSS product that's "just as good", I've yet to run across it. You guys don't know how to market. (HINT: Digg isn't it.)
    • SuperMoses, on 09/04/2008, -0/+11"I've never understood his economic model"

      You should have stopped there. They have used this example many times.. think "free" as in "free speech" not as "free beer".

      If you don't understand it, don't make ignorant criticisms.
    • gerryk, on 09/04/2008, -0/+8If you don't understand the FOSS economic model, you have a) no imagination, and b) haven't done any research... a couple of examples: RedHat, Digium, Astaro... all developers/distributors of FOSS, which they give away for free, and yet all very successful, and using very different business models... some with turnovers in the billions, (RedHat)
    • clsslc, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2It's called support.
    • KiwiGFX, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1I had the pleasure of attending one of Stallman's seminars last month, during his tour of New Zealand, and what SuperMoses has said is absolutely right. Stallman made it quite clear that it should still be possible to sell your product, but you are thinking of the wrong type of freedom. He used the 'free speech, not free beer' example when talking to us also.
  • depro9, on 09/04/2008, -1/+5If it ain't GNU, then ***** you! ;)
  • stxza, on 09/04/2008, -0/+3"For Want of a Printer" (http://oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/ch01.html) : )
  • SuperMoses, on 09/04/2008, -0/+12Long live the Free Software Foundation
  • souravondigg, on 09/04/2008, -0/+6Long live freedom. Long live GNU.
  • PolkStreet, on 09/04/2008, -0/+2I wanna GNU...

    Have you ever seen Lorraine?
  • arjie, on 09/04/2008, -2/+4Stallman has ushered in a GNU era.
  • felipe1982, on 09/04/2008, -0/+6This is such a happy day. Remember to use GNU/Linux in your advocacy, and refer to free software (or at least free and open source software). Good luck in your future endeavours GNU. Rock on.
  • known, on 09/04/2008, -0/+7Thank you RMS for giving us Wisdom.
  • Joh739, on 09/04/2008, -0/+5Happy GNU day all!!!!
  • mohtasham, on 09/04/2008, -0/+2I'm 20 days older than GNU. :)
    • morphir, on 09/05/2008, -2/+1Then you are 20 years older than me too =)
  • eponce, on 09/06/2008, -0/+1Happy birthday GNU!!! :D
  • felipe1982, on 10/28/2008, -0/+1You are so close to something, doesn't make it so. It is copyrighted by the Authors, it is NOT public domain. It cannot be copyrighted by anybody else, without the Authors permission. And a copyright notice must appear with each copy (original or modified) distributed. It is close to public domain, yes, but claiming that it is public domain is wrong.
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