[LINK] REVIEW - Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software

[hartr@interweft.com.au]

On 20 Mar, Danny Yee wrote:
>  Free as in Freedom
>  - Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software
>  Sam Williams 
>  O'Reilly & Associates 2002
>  225 pages, index
>  
>  A book review by Danny Yee
>  http://dannyreviews.com/h/Free_Freedom.html

Many thanks for this.

Having lived through the recent years of this and participated in and
debated the issues with RMS and others, I am not sure wether to bother
reading this or not.

My main interest would be in trying to gain a deeper understanding of
one of the most paradoxical human beings I have ever met.

On the one hand, RMS is a prophet or crusader, seeking to lead people to
a new (let's avoid the obvious pun) and better world. He has immense
passion allied to significant technical prowess and analytical skills,
making him a charismatic leader to many in the IT arena.

On the other hand, his abrasive personal and social manner drive many
people away from both the man and his ideas - to the detriment of the
free software movement.

The 'open source' vs 'free software' brawl is a good example of this
paradox - as is the Linux vs Gnu/Linux debate (which RMS started for
reasons I would dearly love to understand more deeply).

[To be fair on the former issue, Eric Raymond's self-interested stance
 and equally uncompromising attitude in promoting open source made it
 extremely unlikely that the two views would ever reach an
 understanding.

 Fortunately, enough sense prevailed outside these two entrenched camps
 to defuse this issue in the public mind (that is, if people outside
 those interested both understood the somewhat complex philosophical
 issues and cared).
]

>From your review, it does not sound as if the book would lead me to any
deeper understanding of RMS.

-- 
Robert Hart					 hartr@interweft.com.au
Strategic IT & open source consulting                +61 (0)438 385 533
Brisbane, Australia			    http://www.interweft.com.au