g., amazon.com), and sendmail, the most
popular mail program on the Internet, free software had
become an emergent phenomenon. Like a colony of ants
creating a beautiful nest one grain of sand at a time,
the only thing missing was the communal self-awareness.
O'Reilly saw Raymond's speech as a good way to inspire
that self-awareness, to drive home the point that free
software development didn't start and end with the GNU
Project. Programming languages, such as Perl and
Python, and Internet software, such as BIND, sendmail,
and Apache, demonstrated that free software was already
ubiquitous and influential. He also assured Raymond an
even warmer reception than the one at Linux Kongress.
O'Reilly was right. "This time, I got the standing
ovation before the speech," says Raymond, laughing.
As predicted, the audience was stocked not only with
hackers, but with other people interested in the
growing power of the free software movement. One
contingent included a group from Netscape, the Mountain
View, California startup then nearing the end game of
its three-year battle with Microsoft for control of the
web-browser market.
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