Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade

danny writes: "'Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software' is an insightful biography of a figure whose mere name tends to start flame wars on Slashdot ..." Stallman may be one of the most interesting people alive right now: read on to see how well the biography is up to the task of describing him and his movement -- acccording to Danny, that may depend on the reader. Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade author Sam Williams pages 225 publisher O'Reilly rating 9 reviewer Danny Yee ISBN 0-596-00287-4 summary Life of Stallman

Free as in Freedom is a generally sympathetic but far from hagiographic biography of Richard Stallman, inspiration of the free software movement. While much of the material in it will be familiar to anyone actively involved with free software, there are, as Williams claims, "facts and quotes in here that one won't find in any Slashdot story or Google search." It is also an entertaining and accessible study, which I finished within a day of my review copy arriving.

Williams begins with the famous jamming printer and Stallman's encounter with a non-disclosure agreement that prevented him writing reporting software for it. He then jumps forwards to a speech given by Stallman in 2001, responding to attacks by Microsoft on the GNU GPL. Having used these episodes to introduce Stallman and explain the basic idea of free software, the rest of the work continues in a similar vein, mixing historical chapters with ones describing Williams' own meetings with Stallman.

Chapter three describes Stallman's childhood as a prodigy; chapter four his experiences at Harvard and MIT; chapter six the MIT AI Lab and the Emacs "commune"; chapter seven the death of the MIT hacker community and the first announcement of the GNU Project; chapter nine the GNU GPL; chapter ten the appearance of Linux and debates over GNU/Linux; and chapter eleven the coining of the term "open source" and the arguments over that. These contain quotes by everyone from Stallman's mother to the leading lights of free software, as well as plenty by Stallman himself. The narrative never strays too far from its subject, but becomes inextricably interwoven with the broader history and politics of free software and sometimes digresses to cover key figures and events with which Stallman wasn't directly involved.

Williams' first-hand accounts help give Stallman a human face: chapter five recounts a meeting in 1999 LinuxWorld, chapter eight a meeting in Hawaii, and chapter twelve a frustrating car trip with Stallman at the wheel. These give a feel for Stallman's personality and presence, his forthrightness and emotional intensity, his steadfastness and his abrasiveness, and his ability to unsettle. Chapter thirteen attempts to predict Stallman's status "in 100 years," quoting opinions from from Eben Moglen, John Gilmore, Eric Raymond, and Lawrence Lessig; it also suggests that Stallman's personality may be inseparable from his achievements.

Although I was already involved with free software advocacy, my first encounter with Richard Stallman came when he turned up to a rehearsal of my gamelan group; afterwards I tried without much success to explain to my fellow musicians just how important the strange bearded man they'd just met was. I don't think Free as in Freedom would help much with that: it jumps around too much and assumes too much general knowledge of the computer industry to be a good introduction for complete outsiders. Those already interested in the history and politics of free software and hacker culture, however, should relish it.

In an epilogue Williams talks about the writing of Free as in Freedom and the choice of copyright license. Despite the big fuss made about it being released under the GNU Free Documentation License, however, only a sample chapter is available online now and the rest will not, apparently, be put online until June. (This is not a violation of the OFDL, because Williams as copyright holder can allow O'Reilly to distribute the book in any way they like.) So if you don't want to buy a printed copy, you can either wait three months or hope someone OCRs the book sooner.

You can purchase Free as in Freedom from Barnes & Noble, read chapter three online, or check out Danny's 600 other book reviews. Want to see your own review here? Just read the book review guidelines, then use Slashdot's handy submission form.

Comments

How exactly is Stallman interesting?

[FallLine]

No matter what you think of the man, he's like a broken record. Whether you think what that record that record is saying the wrong thing or the right thing, it's certainly anything but interesting.

Re:How exactly is Stallman interesting?

[FallLine]

Why are you asking this question? Why aren't you asking "How exactly is istartedi interesting?". I'll tell you why. It's Because RMS is famous and I'm not.

So is Pamela Anderson. That doesn't make her interesting (well maybe to look at, but that's a different thing all together). Fame != Interesting.

That's enough, but it sort of begs the question "why is he famous?". The answer to that is long and difficult. Some would argue that he isn't famous, and outside the computing community that's true, but only because those outsideers don't realize what an impact the GNU culture has had (for better or worse) on the devices that impact their daily lives.

Ok, I'll bite. How precisely has GNU had an impact on the average person's life? Even if GNU has touched their lifes in some knowable way, that doesn't mean it was instrumental.

In any event, I suspect most of those on slashdot, even the real so-called "geeks", would find this man boring if they had to talk to him for any extended period. The man is driven by some rather simplistic ideas to the exclusion of all else (even that of the core cause which is supposedly promotes). That's NOT interesting.

Theory And Reality

[FortKnox]

True, RMS' crusade involves a wonderful ideology that is utopian in theory. But so was Marx with Communism. Some things in theory aren't necessarily the best in practice.
Now, I know that the Free Software Movement is working well, but RMS is always moaning about how some things aren't "free enough", or how the "proprietary" software is "evil", regardless of form. Being a purist in his thoughts is almost fanatical. There needs to be a balance in his crusade. I'm just glad most believers in the FSM know the balance, and don't follow RMS entirely.

i'm all for free software

[maxpublic]

I'm all for free software. Y'know, the kind I write and decide, for myself, as the creator, what license I'll use when distributing it. GPL, BSD, closed-source proprietary, so long as *I* have the freedom to make a *choice* without some mouth-breathing shithead telling me that only certain Approved Options(TM) are moral.

Just as you have the choice to buy or not buy, use or not use, my software. See? Maximum choice, maximum freedom all-around. And no annoying little mental midgets kicking us in the shins trying to decide for us what is good and what is not.

Max