'Happy Birthday to GNU' marks 25 years
The GNU mascot
(Credit: GNU.org)The Free Software Foundation has released Happy Birthday to GNU to celebrate the silver anniversary of the operating system.
The film, presented by actor/comedian Stephen Fry, offers a basic history of GNU's Not Unix (GNU). Fry describes how Richard Stallman announced a plan in September 1983 to develop a free-software, Unix-like operating system called GNU, and adds that the Linux kernel was re-released under the GNU General Public License in 1992. The GNU/Linux combination provided the first completely nonproprietary way for people to run a PC.
Peter Brown, the Free Software Foundation's executive director, said the video should act not only as a reminder of GNU's history but as a "rallying call for the work that still needs to be done."
"We intend for the 25th anniversary to be more than just a reflection on the history of the free-software movement. Because, despite all of the success brought about by the GNU system and other free-software projects, we still need a determined effort to replace or eliminate the proprietary applications, platforms, drivers and firmware that many users still run," Brown said in a statement.
What do you get an operating system that has everything? How about GNU's official stuffed gnu?
(Credit: GNU.org)The foundation plans further releases as part of the monthlong anniversary celebrations, with announcements timed for Software Freedom Day on 20 September and for the GNU anniversary itself on September 27.
In the video, available for download at GNU.org, Fry says that proprietary operating systems are akin to "bad science," as unofficial modifications to the operating system are prohibited.
"You can't really fiddle with your operating system, and you certainly can't share any ideas you have about your operating system with other people, because Apple and Microsoft, who run the two most popular operating systems, are very firm about the fact that they own that," Fry says.
The actor goes on to say that, for many people, it is natural not to be able to make modifications, but Fry asks why making modifications should be illegal.
"All knowledge is free and all knowledge is shared in good science. If it isn't, it's bad science, and really a kind of tyranny," he says.
Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London.
It is like some powerful company owing the wheel technology. And being able to hide it from the others. From that point those two companies did control the transportation got incredible power.
Ok, you can't cryptograph metal and rubber... But you can do that with bits.
Unless people realized that and started to develop it as science as usual, with peer review etc. That is the way things should be.
It is like some powerful company owing the wheel technology. And being able to hide it from the others. From that point those two companies did control the transportation got incredible power.
Ok, you can't cryptograph metal and rubber... But you can do that with bits.
Unless people realized that and started to develop it as science as usual, with peer review etc. That is the way things should be.
- by Penguinisto September 3, 2008 9:30 AM PDT
- The zealotry may sometimes be grating, but I for one am damned glad that Stallman did what he did, and (grudgingly) continues to do.
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- by Sentinel September 3, 2008 12:58 PM PDT
- I have to say I have my doubt as to just how much Stallman has contributed to the GNU project, aside from being its founder.
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It is true that he is the founder and perhaps one of the most influential representative of all free software, and I don't mean to say otherwise. But how much time has he actually spent coding for the Operating System? The kernel he started to write, the GNU Hurd, has been in development since the beginning of GNU (that's almost 25 years), and according to the FSF homepage, is still not ready for production use. Now the Linux kernel made it into the corporate enterprise in less than 10 years. Go fig.