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

Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software (ISBN 0-596-00287-4) is a free book licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License about the life of Richard Stallman, written by Sam Williams and published by O'Reilly Media on March 1, 2002.

Williams conducted several interviews with Stallman during the writing of the book as well as interviewing some of Stallman's class mates, and his mother.

Structure

The book is divided into fourteen chapters and three appendices which include one for the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL).

License

Free as in Freedom was published under the GNU Free Documentation License, which allows modification and redistribution of the text, photographs contained therein, as well as the cover: its texts, photograph and elements of design.

Writing

Sam Williams has written an article about the process of writing FaiF, recording the license negotiations that led to this book being published under a free license. OnLamp also interviewed Williams in 2002 about the writing process.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

In the book, Bob Young of Red Hat supports the free software movement by saying that it enables people to stand on the shoulders of giants. He also says that standing on the shoulders of giants is the opposite of reinventing the wheel.

An excerpt from the book:

<blockquote>In the western scientific tradition we stand on the shoulders of...
Read More