As Stallman putters around the front of the room, a few
audience members wearing T-shirts with the logo of the
Maui FreeBSD Users Group (MFUG) race to set up camera
and audio equipment. FreeBSD, a free software offshoot
of the Berkeley Software Distribution, the venerable
1970s academic version of Unix, is technically a
competitor to the GNU/Linux operating system. Still, in
the hacking world, Stallman speeches are documented
with a fervor reminiscent of the Grateful Dead and its
legendary army of amateur archivists. As the local free
software heads, it's up to the MFUG members to make
sure fellow programmers in Hamburg, Mumbai, and
Novosibirsk don't miss out on the latest pearls of RMS wisdom.
The analogy to the Grateful Dead is apt. Often, when
describing the business opportunities inherent within
the free software model, Stallman has held up the
Grateful Dead as an example. In refusing to restrict
fans' ability to record live concerts, the Grateful
Dead became more than a rock group.
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