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When Free Software isn't (Practically) Better - Benjamin Mako Hill

Despite the rhetoric, free software isn't always better than proprietary software and it isn't always particularly collaborative. Indeed, social science has shown that most free software projects are small and and the work of a single hacker. In this talk, I will walk through some of the academic research on FLOSS, and explain why free software "failures" are not something we need to be ashamed of or to hide and are something that we -- as a community -- can address and work toward!

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of the Free Software Foundation.

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11 years, 8 months ago

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staff-board · video · lp2013 · LibrePlanet · LibrePlanet 2013 · LibrePlanet 2013 video

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LibrePlanet 2013 Videos (libreplanet)

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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This talk was presented at LibrePlanet.

libreplanet.org

LibrePlanet is the Free Software Foundation's annual conference. The FSF campaigns for free/libre software, meaning it respects users' freedom and community. We believe that users are entitled to this; all software should be free.

gnu.org/important

We do not advocate "open source".

That term was coined to reject our views. It refers to similar practices, but usually presented solely as advantageous, without talking of right and wrong.

gnu.org/not-open-source

Richard Stallman launched the free software movement in 1983 by announcing development of the free operating system, GNU. By 1992, GNU was nearly operational; one major essential component was lacking, the kernel.

gnu.org/gnu-begin

In 1992, Torvalds freed the kernel Linux, which filled the last gap in GNU. Since then, the combined GNU/Linux system has run in millions of computers. Nowadays you can buy a new computer with a totally free GNU/Linux system preinstalled.

gnu.org/gnu-and-linux

The views of the speaker may not represent the Free Software Foundation. The Foundation supports the free software cause and freedom to share, and basic freedoms in the digital domain, but has no position on other political issues.