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Open Source: The Complete Documentation

• This category contains 5 Papers
• The last paper was added on 2007-03-26 (YYYY-MM-DD)

Anarchism Triumphant - Free software and the death of copyright

Published on , by Eben Moglen, ©Eben Moglen.

SOFTWARE: no other word so thoroughly connotes the practical and social effects of the digital revolution. Originally, the term was purely technical, and denoted the parts of a computer system that, unlike "hardware," which was unchangeably manufactured in system electronics, could be altered freely. The first software amounted to the plug configuration of cables or switches on the outside panels of an electronic device, but as soon as linguistic means of altering computer behavior had been developed, "software" mostly denoted the expressions in more or less human-readable language that both described and controlled machine behavior

Contributing to Open Source Projects HOWTO

Published on 2004-11-22, by Dan Kegel, ©Dan Kegel.

This page is aimed at programmers new to the Open Source / Free Software world, who want to make a contribution, but aren't sure where to start.

Free as in Freedom

Published on 2002, by Sam Williams, ©Sam Williams.

The work of Richard M. Stallman literally speaks for itself. From the documented source code to the published papers to the recorded speeches, few people have expressed as much willingness to lay their thoughts and their work on the line.

Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution

Published on 1999, by O'Reilly, ©O'Reilly.

Linux creator Linus Torvalds reports that the name "Linus" was chosen for him because of his parents' admiration for Nobel laureate Linus Pauling. Pauling was the rarest of men: a scientist who won the Nobel Prize not once, but twice. We find a cautionary tale for the Open Source community in the story of Pauling's foundational work that made possible the discovery of the structure of DNA.

Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing

Published on 2004, by Andrew M. St. Laurent, ©Andrew M. St. Laurent.

Free and open source development models have made tremendous contributions to computing, sustaining both research and commercial projects and making it easier for large groups of people, who may not even be acquainted, to help each other. While this growing activity has a promising future, all of this work is built on top of licenses—legal documents—that often seem arcane or difficult to understand. Businesses and individuals aren’t always sure what is at stake in their decisions to participate, and deciding which license to use for a particular project can be a project of its own.