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The GNU project was officially announced on 27 September 1983 by Richard Stallman. Thirty-five years of a project that has now become the fundamental building block of everything we use and see in technology in 2018. I would not be wrong to say that there isn't a single proprietary piece of software that anyone is still using from 35 years ago – please post comments if there is something still being used.
There is only one reason for this longevity: the GNU project was built upon the premise that the code is available to anyone, anywhere with the only restriction that whatever is done to the code, it shall always be available to anyone, forever. Richard Stallman's genius in crafting the copyleft license that is the GNU General Public License is probably the best hack of the 20th century software industry.
Extra: Happy Birthday, GNU: Why I still love GNU 35 years later
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Friday September 28 2018, @10:13AM (3 children)
I really admire Stallman, Linus, ESR, and the many, many FLOSS creators out there. It's a fine legacy to have created something that has changed the world, and to have changed it without sullying it with a profit motive.
Stallman has a certain reputation as an individual, but his achievement is epic.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 28 2018, @10:34AM
Fortune: No yak too dirty; no dumpster too hollow.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 28 2018, @12:14PM
Yeah, he's a dirty hippie but he's our dirty hippie.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Pav on Friday September 28 2018, @09:28PM
Not sure about ESR - the Halloween Documents triggered the movements collective lizard-brain, and it suddently became about defeating Microsoft rather than making world of I.T a place where individuals (both users and coders) and NOT companies had the power. It was around this time that Google, Amazon etc... were founded, and they became the avatars to un-monopoly Microsoft (largely achieved even without the "year of the Linux desktop"), but I can't help but feel things would have been much better without ESR's shift in focus.