If you enjoyed the New Yorker article on RMS and GNU you may also enjoy this 1989 New York Times article on the same subject. It’s almost surrealistic to read about the GNU project from a 1989 point of view.
There was a great deal of doubt as to whether the concept of Free Software could ever gain traction and the GNU project was regarded as, if not quite Quixotic, a very iffy endeavor. Mostly GNU had Emacs and GCC so it had not yet attained the critical mass to make it a successful, stand-alone system.
My favorite quote of the article—and the part that shows how far we’ve come—is the obligatory discussion of “hacker:”
While the press has come to identify the term hacker with malicious individuals who break into computers over telephone lines, the hackers themselves have an earlier and different definition. A hacker, Mr. Stallman said, is one who “acts in the spirit of creative playfulness.”
I love that part about telephone lines. Doubtless, many reading this post don’t remember that and possibly some don’t even get the reference. In those days, home users didn’t keep their computers on all the time because connecting to the Internet involved dialing up with a modem and telephone line.
As far as “hacker” is concerned, we were fighting the same battle in 1989 that we are now. The press is never going to give up their preferred meaning of “one who breaks into computers; a criminal.”
If you remember those days, this article is a trip down memory lane; if you don’t, it’s a glimpse into the way things were not all that long ago. It’s a good read and well worth your time.