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@ -56,9 +56,9 @@ Let's demonstrate it on a few examples:
Precursors to free software may reach as far back in [history](history.md) as we are willing to look. They may include for example ancient [mathematicians](math.md) sharing their equations with each other, engineers sharing plans, people sharing recipes for meals, and influence can possibly also come from the general ideas of [communism](communism.md) (not to be [confused](often_confused.md) with [Marxism](marxism.md)). In 20th century the early digital sharing communities on networks such as [BBS](bbs.md) and [Usenet](usenet.md) worked like free software communities "by default", without really articulating or naming the concept -- they shared software informally without [licenses](license.md) as back then it was believed [copyright](copyright.md) didn't even apply to software -- capitalists haven't yet had enough time to fuck everything up, but that slowly started to change with more commercialization of the brand new field and legal cases that would indeed establish that software was copyrightable.
Free software, in a form discussed here, was invented by [Richard Stallman](rms.md) in the 1980s. He cites his frustration with a proprietary printer driver as an initial impulse. In 1983 he announced the now already legendary project called [GNU](gnu.md) -- one to implement a completely free as in freedom [operating system](os.md). The announcement described the system as "free", however still more in a sense of "not having to pay for permissions". Additionally in 1985 Stallman established the [Free Software Foundation](fsf.md), a non-profit for promotion and support of free software, and this is when the term *free software* seems to have been clearly distinguished. In late 1980s Stallman wrote [GPL](gpl.md), the major (and now one of the most frequent) free licenses. Other standard free licenses, such as the [MIT](mit.md) or [BSD](bsd.md), also appeared around this time. Before these standard licenses programs had to use custom ones, which was much harder and less legally safe.
Free software, in a form discussed here, was invented by [Richard Stallman](rms.md) in the 1980s as a reaction to the corporate rape of computer industry. He cites his frustration with a proprietary Xerox printer driver as an initial impulse. The newly imposed [secrecy](censorship.md) of source code and limitations of legal rights for it strongly violated the [hacker](hacking.md) culture based on free sharing of code -- hackers valued openness and sharing so much that Stallman himself was even refusing to use password on his computer (source: the book *Free as in Freedom*). In 1983 he announced the now already legendary project called [GNU](gnu.md) -- one to implement a completely free as in freedom [operating system](os.md), and later on the GNU Manifesto. The announcement described the system as "free", however still more in a sense of "not having to pay for permissions". Additionally in 1985 Stallman established the [Free Software Foundation](fsf.md), a non-profit for promotion and support of free software, and this is when the term *free software* seems to have been clearly distinguished. In late 1980s Stallman wrote [GPL](gpl.md), the major (and now one of the most frequent) free licenses. Other standard free licenses, such as the [MIT](mit.md) or [BSD](bsd.md), also appeared around this time. Before these standard licenses programs had to use custom ones, which was much harder and less legally safe.
In early [1990s](90s.md) a new project called [Linux](linux.md) -- an operating system kernel -- joined GNU and as a final piece of the puzzle completed its main goal. From now on it became practically possibly to do one's computing solely with free software.
In early [1990s](90s.md) a new project called [Linux](linux.md) -- an operating system [kernel](kernel.md) -- joined GNU and as a final missing part completed its main goal. From now on it became practically possible to do one's computing solely with free software, and this would further be facilitated by the creation of various distributions, notably e.g. [Debian](debian.md). Also during mid 90s the BSD operating systems ([FreeBSD](freebsd.md), [NetBSD](netbsd.md) and [OpenBSD](openbsd.md)) were released under a free license as well, offering another alternative of a free [Unix](unix.md) clone. While personal PCs were taken over by [Windows](windows.md) and [Mac](mac.md) due to aggressive [marketing](marketing.md), practically all Internet servers chose some of the free operating systems and many professionals started to highly prefer them because the proprietary systems were, quite simply put, absolute [garbage](shit.md). Free software proved to objectively better.
Free software gained enough momentum to become a serious threat to capitalism and so opposition appeared, most notably [Microsoft](microsoft.md), caught red handed with the leak of so called *Halloween documents* in late [1990s](90s.md), in which they discuss strategies for eliminating the threat of free software. Despite this free software couldn't be stopped and grew in popularity, which is apparent from the huge success of [GNU](gnu.md)/[Linux](linux.md) and from the cases when very valuable software, such as the [Doom](doom.md) engine or [Blender](blender.md), got released under free terms.