eigenfoo/old-eigenfoo.github.io

History of open source software

eigenfoo opened this issue · 1 comments

eigenfoo commented
  • Timeline
  • First open source projects
  • Open source movement vs free software movement: principles, differences.

https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmasterrace/comments/aywqq3/an_era_of_oss/ei3v919/

The meme is a collection of stereotypes and quips about/at people who claim to love open source software. These people tend to not realize the history that the open source movement has in relationship to the free software community. That is, the open source movement started as a fringe group in the free software movement in the late 90s, in opposition to copyleft and in rejection of the ethical principles that composed the purpose of the free software movement. Instead, they saw software as something pragmatic not political, and thus source sharing became something of pure utility rather than of necessity to ensure user freedom in the software ecosystem. Thus, the GNU head is "crossed out" to demonstrate that symbolism, as it is also noticably placed next to the OSI "pissing on" the FSF logo. The conflict between the two groups is long documented for their difference in values. You could also interpret the crossed out GNU head as a quip to the "it's Linux, not GNU/Linux" that you'd find generally in people who share the values of the OSI instead of the FSF.
But, it is also important to remember it is just a meme.

eigenfoo commented

On reflection, it looks like there's a ton of articles and resources already out there on the history of OSS.

E.g.

It would be hard for me to add any value here. Closing.