Editing Free software (section)

== History ==

{{Further|History of free and open-source software}}
{{See also|Open-source software#History}}
From the 1950s up until the early 1970s, it was normal for computer users to have the ''software freedoms'' associated with free software, which was typically [[public-domain software]].<ref name="infoworld1983">{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yy8EAAAAMBAJ&q=us+government+public+domain+software&pg=PA31 |work=[[InfoWorld]] |date=1983-06-23|title=Free software - Free software is a junkyard of software spare parts |quote=''"In contrast to commercial software is a large and growing body of free software that exists in the public domain. Public-domain software is written by microcomputer hobbyists (also known as "hackers") many of whom are professional programmers in their work life. [...] Since everybody has access to source code, many routines have not only been used but dramatically improved by other programmers."'' |first=Tom |last=Shea |access-date=2016-02-10}}</ref> [[Software]] was commonly shared by individuals who used computers and by hardware manufacturers who welcomed the fact that people were making software that made their hardware useful. Organizations of users and suppliers, for example, [[SHARE (computing)|SHARE]], were formed to facilitate exchange of software. As software was often written in an [[Interpreter (computing)|interpreted language]] such as [[BASIC]], the [[source code]] was distributed to use these programs. Software was also shared and distributed as printed source code ([[Type-in program]]) in [[computer magazine]]s (like ''[[Creative Computing]]'', ''[[SoftSide]]'', ''[[Compute!]]'', ''[[Byte magazine|Byte]]'', etc.) and books, like the bestseller ''[[BASIC Computer Games]]''.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Ahl/DHAbio.htm | title = David H. Ahl biography from Who's Who in America | first = David | last = Ahl | access-date = 2009-11-23}}</ref> By the early 1970s, the picture changed: software costs were dramatically increasing, a growing software industry was competing with the hardware manufacturer's bundled software products (free in that the cost was included in the hardware cost), leased machines required software support while providing no revenue for software, and some customers able to better meet their own needs did not want the costs of "free" software bundled with hardware product costs. In ''United States vs. [[IBM]]'', filed January 17, 1969, the government charged that bundled software was [[Anti-competitive practices|anti-competitive]].<ref name="Fisher" /> While some software might always be free, there would henceforth be a growing amount of software produced primarily for sale. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the [[software industry]] began using technical measures (such as only distributing [[Executable|binary copies]] of [[computer program]]s) to prevent [[User (computing)|computer users]] from being able to study or adapt the software applications as they saw fit. In 1980, [[copyright]] law was extended to computer programs.

In 1983, [[Richard Stallman]], one of the original authors of the popular [[Emacs]] program and a longtime member of the [[hacker (programmer subculture)|hacker]] community at the [[MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory]], announced the [[GNU Project]], the purpose of which was to produce a completely non-proprietary [[Unix-like|Unix-compatible]] operating system, saying that he had become frustrated with the shift in climate surrounding the computer world and its users. In his initial declaration of the project and its purpose, he specifically cited as a motivation his opposition to being asked to agree to [[non-disclosure agreement]]s and restrictive licenses which prohibited the free sharing of potentially profitable in-development software, a prohibition directly contrary to the traditional [[hacker ethic]]. Software development for the [[GNU|GNU operating system]] began in January 1984, and the [[Free Software Foundation]] (FSF) was founded in October 1985. He developed a free software definition and the concept of "[[copyleft]]", designed to ensure ''software freedom'' for all.
Some non-software industries are beginning to use techniques similar to those used in free software development for their research and development process; scientists, for example, are looking towards more open development processes, and hardware such as microchips are beginning to be developed with specifications released under [[copyleft]] licenses (''see the [[OpenCores]] project, for instance''). [[Creative Commons]] and the [[free-culture movement]] have also been largely influenced by the free software movement.

===1980s: Foundation of the GNU Project===
In 1983, [[Richard Stallman]], longtime member of the [[hacker (programmer subculture)|hacker]] community at the [[MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory|MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory]], announced the GNU Project, saying that he had become frustrated with the effects of the change in culture of the computer industry and its users.<ref>{{cite book |last = Williams | first = Sam|date = 2002|title = Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software |url = https://archive.org/details/freeasinfreedomr00will |publisher = O'Reilly Media |isbn = 0-596-00287-4}}</ref> Software development for the GNU operating system began in January 1984, and the [[Free Software Foundation]] (FSF) was founded in October 1985. An article outlining the project and its goals was published in March 1985 titled the ''[[GNU Manifesto]]''. The manifesto included significant explanation of the GNU philosophy, ''[[The Free Software Definition|Free Software Definition]]'' and "[[copyleft]]" ideas.

===1990s: Release of the Linux kernel===
The [[Linux kernel]], started by [[Linus Torvalds]], was released as freely modifiable source code in 1991. The first licence was a proprietary software licence. However, with version 0.12 in February 1992, he [[Software relicensing|relicensed]] the project under the [[GNU General Public License]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/Historic/old-versions/RELNOTES-0.12 | title=Release notes for Linux kernel 0.12 | publisher=Kernel.org}}</ref> Much like Unix, Torvalds' kernel attracted the attention of volunteer programmers.
[[FreeBSD]] and [[NetBSD]] (both derived from [[386BSD]]) were released as free software when the ''[[UNIX System Laboratories, Inc. v. Berkeley Software Design, Inc.|USL v. BSDi]]'' lawsuit was settled out of court in 1993. [[OpenBSD]] [[Fork (software development)|forked]] from NetBSD in 1995. Also in 1995, The [[Apache HTTP Server]], commonly referred to as Apache, was released under the [[Apache License|Apache License 1.0]].