On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 12:39:28 -0500, Frank Caggiano  
<frankcag at crystal-objects.com> wrote:

> Perhaps Stallman and the Open Software Foundation and the others didn't  
> get it exactly right but I really believe had they not reshaped the  
> whole model of software development and distribution we would still be  
> doing business the old fashion way.
>
Err... I don't think that Stallman and the Free Software Foundation (OSF  
is an entirely different beast) can get the credits for that.

Check the copyright dates on the open source SunRPC library, for starters.  
Or the timestamps on the first MIT/BSD style licenses. Remember all the  
'public domain' software in the early '80s for the IBM PC, much of which  
had source code available. Or, if you want to go really really back, go  
hunt for the copyright dates on the OS/360 source code you can just  
download from the net (errr... I don't even think there aren't any. Yes,  
old IBM mainframe system software was largely open source and some even  
public domain, that was when Stallman was still crawling around in  
diapers, I guess ;)).

All that the 'Open Source' movement did, was reinstate an old and good  
habit. What the FSF did, was and still is a very interesting way to bend  
copyright and licensing laws to counteract their own operation, sort of.  
Interesting, important, but the 'old fashioned' way was just something  
newfashioned from the late '80s...