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Title: Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software by Sam Williams ISBN: 0-596-00287-4 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: 01 March, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.21 (14 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Worth Reading
Comment: While other reviews here are highly critical, this book has received wide distribution and readership, and therefore has become required reading.
Being a relatively short book (little over 200 pages), it is an easy read, and allows a decent glimpse into RMS' history and life.
RMS has played a phenomenally important key role in the creation and preservation of free software, namely through the creation of the Free Software Foundation, the GNU Public License and also through the wealth of important projects the FSF has produced.
He is the true messiah of free software, and while his ideals in general may not be unique, he pioneered the freedom movement in digital form which has expanded beyond software alone and into content as well (see also the Electronic Frontier Foundation -- eff.org).
Rating: 4
Summary: Good look into a rather unusual fellow
Comment: RMS has always been a bit of a compelling figure and one wonders what makes him tick. I learned quite a few interesting things about him but, after reading the book, still didn't have the insight I would have hoped to have had. Perhaps that's a limitation of biographies about people who are still living.
In any case, it's interesting to see what the Free Software movement has become and how it has evolved/changed over the past 20 years. And, in my mind, Stallman's greatest accomplishment may not have been any particular piece of software but rather the GNU Public license. The development of that is discussed in much depth.
Roger
Rating: 4
Summary: Good book on a very interesting personality
Comment: This is a good book on Richard Stallman, the man behind GNU. Prior to reading this book, I had never even seen what he looks like, yet his work and dedication have had a great impact on my professional and academic career (I've been using GNU tools and compilers since my undergrad days in the early 1990s). It's good to finally place a face and personality with GNU.
The book itself provides a good story on Stallman, but the writing is poor. There are a modest number of typos throughout the book (come on now, couldn't the author have at least run ispell on the document?) as well as a few astounding grammatical errors. Furthermore, the author doesn't do a very good job placing dates with most of his facts. The introduction to the printer incident -- evidently a defining moment in Stallman's life -- is not even given a year. This is important, for the events that methodically unfolded in Stallman's life motivated him greatly. With this in mind, the author fails to convey much time-continuity with his writing; in particular, he shifts back and forth between the present and the past without regard for even stating what year he's discussing. Finally, a short, concise timeline of events as an appendix or something would have been nice.
All in all, this is a very good book about Stallman and his motivations for free software. If you've ever used GNU tools, compilers, or GNU/Linux, then you owe it to yourself to read this book and understand how these pieces of software got into your hands.
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Title: Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman by Richard M. Stallman, Lawrence Lessig, Joshua Gay ISBN: 1882114981 Publisher: Free Software Foundation Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary by Linus Torvalds, David Diamond ISBN: 0066620732 Publisher: HarperBusiness Pub. Date: 04 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary by Eric S. Raymond ISBN: 0596001088 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: 15 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution (O'Reilly Open Source) by Chris Dibona, Mark Stone, Sam Ockman, Open Source, Brian Behlendorf, Scott Bradner, Jim Hamerly, Kirk McKusick, Tim O'Reilly, Tom Paquin ISBN: 1565925823 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: January, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution by Glyn Moody ISBN: 0738206709 Publisher: Perseus Books Group Pub. Date: 15 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.50 |
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