---
tags: [history, ecopolsoc, FOSS]
created: Thursday, March 27, 2025
---

# d212acdb_from_free-software_to_open_source

For the decade or so after Stallman's "Initial Announcement" of GNU in 1983,
free software and the philosophy behind it remained the preserve of the
technical underground. During these years, the phrase "open source" did not
exist.

Many engineers were using and contributing to free software in their free-time
and surreptitiously using it in the corporate context but there was little
awareness of it amongst the business class. If they did know about GNU-Linux
they did not see it as a viable alternative to proprietary software, due to the
lack of licensing, customer support and the misapprehension that the product
would be inferior.

The turning point came when
[Netscape](./c301a0b3-1d8_Mosaic_Netscape_and_Browser_Wars.md), in a last ditch
effort to resist Microsoft's obliteration of their market, made their
source-code open. This caught the attention of the corporate class and the
additional media attention led to a greater interest amongst capitalists
generally.

They quickly surmised that this could be an avenue of profit maximisation:
free-labour, no licensing costs etc. As part of this process, free software was
rebranded as "open source", all the better to calm investors' worries about its
socialistic flavour having misread "free" as meaning "for no cost".

Interestingly Microsoft publicly disparaged Linux and free software generally in
public but an employee leaked internal memoranda which showed them to be most
concerned. They led a vigorous PR campaign of disinformation about free
software, tying it to the emerging phenomenon of "illegal file sharing". This
was propitious timing, as it coincided with the passing of the DMCA (Digital
Millennium Copyright Act) in the United States which introduced punitive
punishment for those caught distributing proprietary media and software.

So this is really the origin of hackers' antipathy to Microsoft and it's
interesting to reflect on this today where Microsoft has very effectively
subsumed "open source" into itself, realising it couldn't beat it on its own
terms. Most notably with their acquisition of GitHub.

## Source

Gabriella Coleman, _Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking_ (2013)
