The Mercury News: An Ode to Pioneer of Free Software

“Stallman is a programmer, but not just any programmer. Probably
more than anyone else, he created the foundation for a software
genre–and a movement–that is one of the last buttresses against
the monopolists who want to capture perfect control of the
technology business and the money that flows through it.

“His creation became known as ‘free software,’ the notion that
users of computers need and deserve the ability to freely use and
modify the crucial programs that make these machines work.
Proprietary software abridges those freedoms.

“Stallman’s GNU project helped spark a Finnish college student,
Linus Torvalds, to create a crucial piece, the crucial component,
of what is now called the Linux operating system. Stallman calls it
GNU/Linux. He has a point…”

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