d212acdb_from_free-software_to_open_source

For the decade or so after Stallman’s “Initial Announcement” of GNU in 1983, free software and the philosophy behind it remained the preserve of the technical underground. During these years, the phrase “open source” did not exist.

Many engineers were using and contributing to free software in their free-time and surreptitiously using it in the corporate context but there was little awareness of it amongst the business class. If they did know about GNU-Linux they did not see it as a viable alternative to proprietary software, due to the lack of licensing, customer support and the misapprehension that the product would be inferior.

The turning point came when Netscape, in a last ditch effort to resist Microsoft’s obliteration of their market, made their source-code open. This caught the attention of the corporate class and the additional media attention led to a greater interest amongst capitalists generally.

They quickly surmised that this could be an avenue of profit maximisation: free-labour, no licensing costs etc. As part of this process, free software was rebranded as “open source”, all the better to calm investors’ worries about its socialistic flavour having misread “free” as meaning “for no cost”.

Interestingly Microsoft publicly disparaged Linux and free software generally in public but an employee leaked internal memoranda which showed them to be most concerned. They led a vigorous PR campaign of disinformation about free software, tying it to the emerging phenomenon of “illegal file sharing”. This was propitious timing, as it coincided with the passing of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) in the United States which introduced punitive punishment for those caught distributing proprietary media and software.

So this is really the origin of hackers’ antipathy to Microsoft and it’s interesting to reflect on this today where Microsoft has very effectively subsumed “open source” into itself, realising it couldn’t beat it on its own terms. Most notably with their acquisition of GitHub.

Source

Gabriella Coleman, Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking (2013)