An essay on how Linux is important for the ideal of Freedom.
Incomplete, sadly, I've lost the document.
Somewhere in the electronic vast that forms the Internet, there exists a powerful guerilla revolution in the making. This insurrection was born out of the sheer frustration and desperation at the current state of affairs in the software world. It is a difficult battle, as it stands. To throw the might of the individual against that of the powerful established software companies might seem rash. However, the Open Software movement has done precisely that. This is the story of one of the revolution?s victories; this is the story of Linux.
The very existence and nature of the Internet has caused a radical shift in the way the software businesses operate. However, there still is no openness, no flexibility, and no adaptability in the software that are being produced. The individual has no means of tinkering with the code to ensure that it was exactly what he wanted. Another aspect of this story is the fact that when people write an innovative program and wish to share it with others, difficulties arise. Apart from the commercial aspects of this problem, are the rights to further improvements to that program to be restricted to only the original writer? Then where is the power of the individual? Such questions along with the nature of co-operative working on the Internet lead to the formation of the open source movement.
This is a group of people that believe that along with the program, the source code must be supplied for personal usage and improvement. Thus, this committed band of people set up the Free Software Foundation, the very first organization that set out in a large way to ensure that the individual was given highest priority. Another important landmark in this area was the creation of an Open General License (OGL). This document set out in clear and legal terms what the open source movement was all about.
In this fertile breeding ground of ideas over the Internet, the Usenet, a student sent a small mail. The student was asking for some help on a project that he was up to. Nothing much, you might remark. The student was Linus Torvalds and the mail asked for information on x86 compatible Unix (actually POSIX compliant Minix systems, but let us leave those details for later!) operation systems. The hacker community responded immediately, sensing the excellent concept. The net result was an explosion of work on this project.
It must be remembered that Linus voluntarily chose to place Linux under Open General License. Once this was done, immediately people began to co-operate and work on it. Thousands of programmers spent their free time tinkering and working on it. The design and features of this system were developed after discussion and argument over the Usenet. Each person contributed by just being a part of the process.