perturbed1 writes:
The founder of the FSF which just released GPLv3, Richard M. Stallman, gave a talk at CERN a few weeks ago where he talked about the ethics and practice of free software. A video of his talk is
now available in the free ogg format through this site. After explaining the motivation and ethics of free software, RMS went into the history of GNU/Linux (around minute 49 in the video), insisting that GNU be included in the name of the distribution to give credit to the free software developers who do not work on the kernel and to avoid confusion. "This confusion led people to think that the whole system was Mr. Torvalds' work and [...] think that the whole system came from his vision of the world." What was surprising was the ensuing was a rather strong criticism of Linus Torvalds, the main developer of the kernel. Starting at the 57th minute:
"Torvalds does not support the ideas of freedom that I have been telling you about. He never did. [...] He calls himself apolitical which refers to the political position that we should make important political decisions according to short term practical convenience. He says he values powerful reliable software and that's all. He is against the idea that all users should have freedom and he has demonstrated this by conspicuous involvement with non-free software. [...] What I object to is that people think that our work was done by him and when our work serves as the platform for him to state his views and to drown us out. [...] So please call the system GNU/Linux or GNU+Linux. [...] But, there is something more important at stake and that's called freedom. There are people who would like to take away your freedom. The only way to keep your freedom is if you are prepared to defend it. " (Listen on for more... )
Who knows? Maybe /. will lead the way by renaming the "Linux" section, the "GNU/Linux" section?
