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Williams, Sam

"Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software"

"What
rules can we impose on everybody else so they have to
pay us lots of money? I had the good fortune in the
1970s to be part of a community of programmers who
shared software. And because of this I always like to
look at the same issue from a different direction to
ask: what kind of rules make possible a good society
that is good for the people who are in it? And
therefore I reach completely different answers."
Once again, Stallman quickly segues into the parable of
the Xerox laser printer, taking a moment to deliver the
same dramatic finger-pointing gestures to the crowd. He
also devotes a minute or two to the GNU/Linux name.
"Some people say to me, `Why make such a fuss about
getting credit for this system? After all, the
important thing is the job is done, not whether you get
recognition for it.' Well, this would be wise advice if
it were true. But the job wasn't to build an operating
system; the job is to spread freedom to the users of
computers. And to do that we have to make it possible
to do everything with computers in freedom.


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