This article is prompted by the recent news of Gnome considering a vote to split from the GNU project. The GNU project is a software development effort to create a free Unix-like operating system. Indeed, much of the software tools used in Linux (a Unix-like operating system) was created by the GNU project. Much of the philosophy of the GNU project came from its founder, Richard Stallman. Stallman advocates that free (as in freedom) software is the only acceptable kind; any software that removes a person’s freedom is an assault to that person’s inalienable rights. Stallman’s definition of freedom includes a person’s rights to run a program for any purpose, to redistribute the program (either for no cost or for a fee), to modify that program to suit his needs, and to distribute the modified program.
A bit after the GNU project had gained some momentum, Linus Torvalds saw the use of the software tools created by the GNU project. Torvalds had been working on his own project: an operating system kernel called Linux. The GNU project by that time (around 1991) had released some quality software, which Torvalds saw fit to include with his operating system.
Over time, the GNU project also created a software license called the GNU GPL. The license codified Stallman’s philosophy into a legal document. It included terms that required distributors of GPL-licensed software to also distribute the source code to that software. Also, any GPL-licensed software that was modified also had to have the modified source code distributed with the with it. Torvalds wanted to distribute Linux for free and realized that having any modified versions of his code would be beneficial, since he could then incorporate that modification in his own system. Because of this, Torvalds released Linux under a GNU GPL license. Many other people followed suit.
At that moment, two different people with different goals shared a similar means. Ever since then, people of one mindset or the other would associate themselves with the seemingly same community. They called it the Free Open Source Software (FOSS) community. It has seemed to work okay for a while, although there has always been some amount of friction between those who are in it for pragmatic reasons and those who fight for the human right to free software. The pragmatists are making deals with companies that produce proprietary software. The GNU crowd is making very public, very bold statements that don’t represent the views of everyone involved. This friction has begun to start fires.
Arguing for one viewpoint or another is not going to tear “the community” apart, as some people believe is happening. This is not a community to be torn apart; it is two different communities, and it’s time for people to realize that. I do believe that once this becomes accepted, people will be much happier and more productive.
What do you think? Two communities? One community? Post your comments.