[Discuss] Stallman stubborn

[richb at pioneer.ci.net (Rich Braun)]

Shirley Marquez Dulcey <mark at buttery.org> noted:
> Those earlier compilers were free in the sense that you didn't have to
> pay for them, but most were not freely distributable in the way that
> GCC is.

The context of the era, and timing of the FSF initiatives, is part of why I
think the Stallman contribution (mainly in the period 1977-94) made a large
and permanent impact.  Here are some more of my thoughts:

* In the '70s and early '80s, the world of computing was dominated by
timesharing and software-rental (so-called Software-as-a-Service these days)
business models.

* The rise of the low-cost PC coincided with the early years of the FSF; right
at the moment that home-hobbyists got access to decent amounts of compute
power, Stallman got his MacArthur grant which turned the lawyers loose to
develop the competing anti-business model embodied by the GPL.

* By the time the separately-evolving politics of the Internet
("Acceptable-Use Policy") led to commercialization at the tail end of 1992,
the GPL's version of open-source publishing had taken root and was
flourishing, leading to the likes of the Linux kernel, the Slackware distro,
and the Apache server license.  Instead of 50 or 500 websites operated by Big
Business, the world got millions.

* In the '80s and '90s, the industry was so small that it was easy to pick out
a niche, develop and publish a piece of useful software in a matter of weeks.
Picking well meant a degree of fame, at least sufficient to guarantee access
to solid career jobs in the software industry for a long time to come: this
was sufficient reward for quite a few people to publish free open-source
software. Today it's hard to find such a niche, and most people who do want to
get paid directly for their efforts; the context of those times was a very
important factor in the effort/reward ratio for those participating in the FSF
movement.

* The standards for user-experience design and software defects were way lower
back then; today's users have high expectations for a polished UX and
thoroughly-tested/bug-free software vs. expectations of that era. It's become
harder and costlier to produce a broadly-accepted piece of software today.

-rich