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A comment on The Realities of Being a FOSS Maintainer. Parent comment

Re:The Realities of Being a FOSS Maintainer by KGIII on Saturday September 16, 2017 @01:43AM (#15263109)
Slight addition to your post, RMS isn't really the beginner of free software. He did start GNU, but the idea of free software existed long before him. He is the most well known vocal proponent, of course.

He has done much for the movement and this isn't meant to denigrate him. It's just that there was free software proponents before him and he's just the famous one. I'm sure Wikipedia has an article on the history of free software. It should go back at least as far as SHARE, from the 1950s, as I recall.

Again, this isn't meant to denigrate RMS, or his work. He's a nice enough fellow. In fact, we went to school together. This is just a bit of a lead for those who wish to look deeper.

Actually, I'll get you a link.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_free_software

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Re:The Realities of Being a FOSS Maintainer by pessimizer on Saturday September 16, 2017 @08:57AM (#15264457)
He is the beginner of "Free Software," which is a term he defined. He isn't the first person who let people look at source code, allowed people to freely use and remix a particular piece of source code, or who didn't charge for software.
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Re:The Realities of Being a FOSS Maintainer by KGIII on Saturday September 16, 2017 @11:40AM (#15265103)
The turn of phrase is something you can attribute to him, if you want. He's done great things, but he's not really the beginning. I was addressing that part of the statement.
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