Customer Reviews

Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The reviewer who admittedly has not read the book also has no idea what context the author and Stallman use the word "free" in. This is "free" as in "freedom", as the title says. Not "free" as in "free beer", as they say.

Stallman's views are basically for free information. The base price of free software can be one dollar or 1000 dollars. The source code for it must be available, though, and it must be made distributable for those who want it. The idea is that interested programmers can add, improve, and change around the program for the benefit of everyone.

If we extend this purpose to include his book, as the reviewer implied, then it would still be completely valid. Source code (the English syntax) is available, so people can modify the book, and they can distribute it so that others can do the same. The base price can easily be [money]. The pricing is irrelevent if the other two conditions are met.

I suppose that the reviewer would know these things if he was qualified to review the book (that is, if he had read it, which he admittedly has not).

On the topic of the book itself, I enjoyed it immensely. It was definitely not too short, and most certainly not too long. It was just right for the type of story it was telling. The book focuses mostly on Stallman's life and his decisions and discoveries that he made that led him to start the Free Software Foundation.

Throughout the book, it becomes clear that Stallman is a very gifted man (he learned Calculus when he was seven), but it wasn't until his college years that he really found his niche. When he did, his gifts became apparent, and his true potentials came out.

I would encourage anyone who is interested in free or open-source software to read this book for the background on the man who started it all. His rationale is very thought-provoking, and makes you wonder about some of the other things in life that should be questioned, but now are simply taken for granted.

Short story: this book deserves 2.5 stars at best. For the longer version, read on.

First the good news. Williams takes some pains to understand and accurately portray RMS, which, from all indications, is no easy task. FAIF, in taking this measured look, does supply some perspective to this at times under-appreciated contributor to the "new" computer revolution.

I also appreciated the eclectic trajectories of the author. First, Williams publishes FAIF under the Gnu Free Document License (GFDL), thereby making it a "free book". Although a completely natural step considering the subject matter, publishing the book as such is an important extension of the general principle that certain ideas should be freely accessible and modifiable. Second, he borrows from a range of excellent sources, even going so far as to reference "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" in the Epilogue!

Furthermore, the abridged history of the roots of hackerdom is particularly well done, if somewhat thickly worded. Attention was also clearly paid to chapter length, making that aspect of the book "readable" and pleasant.

Now for the not-so-good news. The writing style is far from fluid: I didn't feel as though I was lead through the events in the book so much as I was thrown into them. To make matters worse, some events were irrelevant (I still can't figure out why the treatment of RMS's mother's politics were given so much attention), others over-quoted (I can read Levy's "Hackers" myself), while still others were just plain inaccurate.

The last of these transgressions is certainly the most serious, and merits some detail. As one example, on page 143 Williams describes the Linux kernel as "a bored-out, super-charged version of Minix." He continues, "Rather than building their operating system from scratch, Torvalds and his rapidly expanding Linux development team had followed the old Picasso adage, 'good artists borrow, great artists steal'", alluding to his apparent belief that Linux is some sort of clever rehash of something that came before it.

These inaccuracies are not merely an excusable smudging of the facts. In "Just For Fun" (a source to which Williams points frequently enough), Torvalds dedicates *an entire chapter* (Chapter X) to debunking the mythical connections between Minix and Linux (no boring-out, no super-charging). Torvalds also evinces on pp. 77-8 in JFF (paperback edition), the processes involved in writing the operating system. "My terminal emulator grew legs", he says; later "I wrote a disk driver", and finally "I made my filesystem compatible with the Minix system". None of these actions so much as hints at borrowing, not to mention stealing, anything. In fact, at this point *all* of the work appears to be that of Torvalds, and *is* from scratch. (Of course, code reuse isn't a sin anyway, but rather should be-and frequently is-a blessing, as I'm sure RMS himself would readily admit. Regardless, the pejorative tone and inaccurate reporting is no less obnoxious for being subtle.)

Other examples of spin doctoring and untruths can also be found in uncomfortable abundance. Much of the combative posturing vis-à-vis the GNU/Linux and Open Source communities-particularly in relation to the personages of Torvalds and ESR, I found wholly unproductive. These egregious gestures on the part of Williams show a blatant bias to RMS, as either shunned hero or undeserved victim. Elements of both of these are likely true, but not likely to the degree expressed by Williams (or felt by RMS??). In any event, the lack of perspective by the author for his subject is journalistically weak.

And finally, Williams manages to hit a couple of lesser pet peeves of mine. Neither proofreading nor fact checking is my idea of pleasantly interacting with a book. Not only could FAIF have stood another reading before going to press, a spellchecker could have caught a number of obvious spelling errors. To those who would suggest that the GFDL is employed precisely to improve the book, I would suggest that the license should not be used as a shield to ward off criticism of sloppy work.

Anyway, if you want something concise, this will do. Fwiw, I'd advise checking out the site of the book online first, paying attention to the sources that sound interesting, and *reading those first*. Then go to gnu.org or slashdot.org and read items of interest about RMS there. If you still aren't satisfied, you can always go back to faifzilla and read FAIF online (it's more up to date anyway). If after that you STILL want the pen-and-ink version, you know where it's available.

It's hard to be neutral about Richard Stallman. Some people love him--others hate him. But he's been the key player in the free software movement. This nicely written book helps us to understand what makes him tick, and why he is what he is. It goes back to his youth and even includes interviews with his mother. The book is by no means a defense of Stallman. Instead, it probes beneath the surface and chronicles the events that have made him such a prominent and sometimes enigmatic figure among free software and open source developers.

While Stallman cooperated with the author, he has no financial connections with the book (to address the concerns of one reviewer here).

...Such is the challenge that all biographer's face, and Williams does a good job of sorting out the intricacies of Stallman's inspirations and motivations.

In fact, it is Stallman's head that has been both his greatest advantage and detriment. His pure intellect is what enabled him to code for days at a time and develop the concept of free software. It enabled him to execute those ideas in classic pieces of software such as the Emacs editor, EDMA modular development environment, GCC compiler, and much more... But although Stallman's intellectual prowess was clearly genius material, his inability to effectively deal with people and his need to macro-manage alienated many of those around him. Williams cites an incident wherein a dinner guest innocuously uttered the phrase "God forbid," to which Stallman replied, "I hate to break it to you, but there is no God." Such utterances are indicative of Stallman's inner demons, many of which are related to the fact that he likely suffers from Asberger syndrome. (Asberger syndrome is one of the disorders on the autistic spectrum. For a fascinating look at how Asberger syndrome affects an inordinately high number of people in the technology industry, see "The Geek Syndrome"..

Whereas Stallman is an acutely individualistic person who, in his early days, simply wanted to be left alone to code, Linus Torvalds is a much more personable and pleasant person. That trait alone is not what made Linux so ubiquitous, but it is a key reason why the operating system is known as Linux, and not GNU/Linux -- much to Stallman's chagrin. Williams describes numerous instances wherein Stallman chastised him for inadvertently using the term Linux and not GNU/Linux.

The book's epilogue does indeed decipher what it was that drove Stallman to free software: crushing loneliness. Williams details the connection between loneliness on a physical and spiritual level to loneliness on a hacker level. The impulse to share code is about friendship, albeit on a low level. Stallman admits that loneliness, or the fear of perpetual loneliness, played a major role in fueling his determination during the earliest days of the GNU project. Fortunately for Stallman, he eventually found love and a soul mate in a woman named Sarah.

The best biography is in fact an autobiography, but Stallman would likely never pen his own memoirs. Williams has created a well-written and well-researched life history of Richard Stallman. Free as in Freedom is an engrossing look at one of the seminal figures in the Open Source/Free Software movement.

I found Free as in Freedom in the library, Deweyed on the
the same shelf as computer programming methodologies.

Reading it has given me some strength to be more uncompromising
in applying ethical convictions to life.

One of the more interesting aspects of the story is the attitude that when you are in the right, you can wait and the rest of
the world will come around to your point of view.

As a software developer who has several times seen his work
ignored by befuddled friends and family only to a few months
later see similar ideas expressed in full page glossy adverts,
I found this validating.

I really didn't have high expectations for this book, I figured it would be nothing more than a historical account of the accomplishments of RMS, I was dead wrong. "Free as in Freedom" looks at RMS from a personal and technical level. From his beginnings as an awkward boy in NYC, all the way to rise of the free software movement. I figured this book would be written from extremely pro-gnu standpoint, but I was pleasantly surprised to find an objective account of Richard's issues with the open source movement.

While other reviews here are highly critical, this book has received wide distribution and readership, and therefore has become required reading.

Being a relatively short book (little over 200 pages), it is an easy read, and allows a decent glimpse into RMS' history and life.

RMS has played a phenomenally important key role in the creation and preservation of free software, namely through the creation of the Free Software Foundation, the GNU Public License and also through the wealth of important projects the FSF has produced.

He is the true messiah of free software, and while his ideals in general may not be unique, he pioneered the freedom movement in digital form which has expanded beyond software alone and into content as well (see also the Electronic Frontier Foundation -- eff.org).

This book offers interesting view into Richard Stallman. Williams should be saluted for taking on the difficult task of giving us, outside the gnu world, an understanding of the enigma who is Richard Stallman. His philosophy is clearly presented, yet details of others in the hacker universe are lacking. The book is filled with technical details and is unfinished, as Williams states, to be updated online. Overall, this is the best glimpse we have of Stallman the man.

This is a good book on Richard Stallman, the man behind GNU. Prior to reading this book, I had never even seen what he looks like, yet his work and dedication have had a great impact on my professional and academic career (I've been using GNU tools and compilers since my undergrad days in the early 1990s). It's good to finally place a face and personality with GNU.

The book itself provides a good story on Stallman, but the writing is poor. There are a modest number of typos throughout the book (come on now, couldn't the author have at least run ispell on the document?) as well as a few astounding grammatical errors. Furthermore, the author doesn't do a very good job placing dates with most of his facts. The introduction to the printer incident -- evidently a defining moment in Stallman's life -- is not even given a year. This is important, for the events that methodically unfolded in Stallman's life motivated him greatly. With this in mind, the author fails to convey much time-continuity with his writing; in particular, he shifts back and forth between the present and the past without regard for even stating what year he's discussing. Finally, a short, concise timeline of events as an appendix or something would have been nice.

All in all, this is a very good book about Stallman and his motivations for free software. If you've ever used GNU tools, compilers, or GNU/Linux, then you owe it to yourself to read this book and understand how these pieces of software got into your hands.

I find Stallman and Linus a very interesting comparison, especially their motivations. Williams has done a good job of providing the reader insight into a leading thinker in our time. As with most leaders there are those who think he is a genius, those who think he is a fool and those who think he is evil. The choice is of course dependent upon how closely the leader agrees with the observer.

"Free as In Freedom" paints what seems to be an accurate if not overly flattering portrait of RMS. He comes off as a brilliant but deeply wounded and vicious person. RMS describes those who disagree with his philosophy as engaging in evil. Not in doing something he believes is evil. The great contribution he made began as a temper tantrum as a result of people being hired away from the MIT AI Lab and Stallman not having access to tools that had been paid for and provided to him previously. One of the most remarkable facets about Stallman is that his temper has benefited so many people. Most of us just throw the &^%##@ driver in the *&^%##@ lake !

Stallman is a major contributor in our time and this is an excellent book. If you are interested in the Free Software/Open Source movement this is a must read.