above left: Richard Stallman's Free Software Foundation's GNU project logo, featuring a gnu head. GNU is Free Software Foundation's project name. The project is to create a operating system and complete suit of applications that allows anyone to distribute and modify freely. The name GNU is a “recursive acronym”, standing for “Gnu's Not Unix”. Implied in the name is the hatred towards software commercialization and incompetence that is Unix (tm). The word gnu in English means a type of bull-looking antelope, therefore the mascot.
above right, Logo for OpenSource, inaugurated in 2001 or 2002. OpenSource is a movement in software industry officially began in 1998. Its creed is that the workings of software must not be secret. The “source” in OpenSource refers to the source code of software. OpenSource started in 1998 lead by Eric Raymond et al. OpenSource is now a legal entity called Open Source Initiative, a non-profit organization full-fledged with board members and policies, peddling its ideology.
Stallman is a freedom extremist with stringent principles. He wrote a valuable text editor “emacs” and a C compiler “gcc” that became a foundation of unixes in the 1980s. The Free Software Foundation is founded by him officially in 1985. He created a licensing scheme called “GNU General Public License” (GPL) that makes in principle any software based or derived from GNU project must also bear this license (or equivalent), effectively a viral system. The unix community's love for freedom and Stallman's deeds have engendered a large FSF following in the unix community. Among unix community there are also dissidents, who do not like the idea of freedom being applied forcefully by law as in GPL. Coupled with Stallman's unrelenting and difficult personality, a schism gradually developed in the freedom-loving unix community. Some developed a dislike towards Stallman.
The GPL made a number of unix project extremely popular. The foremost is Linux the operating system. In about 1996, dot com era is thriving like wildfire, along with the GPL propelled Linux with free applications like Apache webserver, Perl scripting language, and MySQL database making a brouhaha in the Info Tech industry. The gospel of Stallman's stringent ideology and propaganda often scared off the businessmen who are trying to use FSF's technologies to make some bucks.
In 1998 Netscape Inc released their browser code to the public in hope that it will be improved by the internet programers as to save itself from extinction by the technically superior Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. Releasing source code to the public by a major corporation is a first in industry. Eric Raymond and others, leading parts of the freedom-loving unix community, took this opportune shocking publicity and started the OpenSource movement. It is supposed to mediate the conflict between the stringent Stallman's Free Software ideology and the real-life business world, and promote freedom in software. It focus on non-secrecy of software as its name implies. OpenSource is also strongly a movement of Microsoft Hatred. The OpenSource people have a strong hatred toward Microsoft, both its products and business practice. OpenSource thus stole the limelight from FSF in the public, and officially marks a split of the freedom-loving unix community.
The adversary between the FreeSoftware (FSF) and OpenSource groups are implicit and heated among themselves, but when it comes to general matters of Microsoft, software patent, software restrictions, both groups are on the same boat. In media today, the term OpenSource does not makes a distinction between FreeSoftware vs OpenSource ideologies. It refers to any software that does not come with traditional commercial liscensing scheme and can be downloaded on the web along with its source code.).
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Here are some annotated art from GNU's art gallery: http://www.gnu.org/graphics/graphics.html
This art depicts the philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal with a gnu; art by Markus Gerwinski. It dates at least 1995. It appears that the artist has a project called GNU Pascal http://www.gnu-pascal.de/, a Pascal compiler. That's probably why Blaise Pascal. It is not clear to me if this drawing of Pascal is purely imaginative or factual. More info on Pascal here: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Pascal.html
The Hurd logo. The Gnu's planned operating system GNU Hurd↗. Hurd is doubly recursive acronym. “Hurd” stands for “Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons”, while “Hird” stands for “Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth”. According to gnu.org, Thomas Bushnell is the primary architect of the Hurd. Hurd is planned to be the OS for the GNU project, and programers waited for its completion over a decade, but finally around 1997 Linux took over, for all practical purposes. The artist of the Hurd logo is Stephen McCamant (alias@mcs.com). I love this Hurd logo, and i love the acronym's expansion. The logo symbolize supreme abstraction and elegance. The acronym kicks sloppy happy-go-lucky unix moron's asses.
The august gnu and the carefree penguin. This art symbolize the attitude of FreeSoftware people and the often OpenSource people towards commercial entities. The FreeSoftware people tends to be philosophical and absolute, while the OpenSourcers tends to be slacking and easy-going. Notice the GPL prominently displayed on their uniform. They are postured to fight the so-thought-of Greed crime. Who is the artist?
above: My favorite. I call it the GNU Lingus. By Milo Manara.
• A Case Aganist OpenSources (A New Paradigm in Intellectual Property Law?) by Mathias Strasser, 2001. http://stlr.stanford.edu/STLR/Articles/01_STLR_4/article.htm
• In 1998, Netscape released its code to the public. This is the first open source movement by a big commercial entity, and made into a headline. A well-known programer Jamie Zawinski↗ wrote a essay about this. “resignation and postmortem” by Jamie Zawinski, 1999. http://www.jwz.org/gruntle/nomo.html
Page created: 2002. © 2002 by Xah Lee.
