Word: stallman
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Even Richard Stallman cannot abide by this high standard. To do anything more than beep when it is turned on, a computer needs an operating system. PCs require DOS, Macs use System 7, and workstations and mainframes use UNIX...
...even Stallman must use a commercial operating system because no "free" one exists. To change this, he is writing an improved version of UNIX from scratch--which he intends to give away...
After nearly a decade of work, Stallman is close to completing his operating system, called GNU. What he has written so far is considered among the best available. Parts of GNU are already standard in several types of computers. Some parts even lurk in the depths of HUSC, the Science Center computer system...
...source code is available, computer users can either fix bugs themselves, or hire other programmers. Corrections could then be incorporated into the program's next release. EMACS has already had eighteen major releases; Stallman has played an increasingly minor role in each. Software users often become software writers as they adapt free programs to their needs...
Instead of putting a copyright on his software, Stallman and his Free Software Foundation put a "copyleft" on it, poking fun at the laws they hate. Software with a copyleft can be modified by users, and can be distributed to anyone. Any new program that uses free source code is automatically free as well...