Richard Stallman and the Connotations of Language

"Anyone looking for a summary of the free software movement's concerns needs only to look at Richard M. Stallman's essay 'Some Confusing or Loaded Words and Phrases that are Worth Avoiding.' Behind the modest title, the essay lists all the classic free software concerns, ranging from insisting on the term 'GNU/Linux' for the operating system usually called Linux to efforts to emphasize the dangers of so-called Digital Rights Management and Trusted Computing.

"Even more importantly, though the essay never refers to the term, what unites most of its list is a concern with framing--the effort to define the terms of a debate to favor one side over the other..."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• What Should Be Proprietary in Open Source?(Nov 26, 2007)
• Open-Source Java: One Year Later(Nov 15, 2007)
• Overcoming Social Inertia(Nov 07, 2007)
• Stallman: Students Should Be Taught to Share With The Class(Oct 23, 2007)