Whether fought in the streets or in cyberspace, revolutions emerge from a desire for freedom and equality. The origins of the digital revolution were no different. Many early innovators believed that software and code should be free and widely shared. So when money became an issue, and institutions like Microsoft sought to profit from and control software, radicals advocated for “free and open-source software (FOSS).” FOSS developers transformed the world with their digital revolution, and they continue to do so to this day.
“Free and open-source software” (FOSS) has more than one meaning.
The great radical political thinkers of the Enlightenment, like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, aspired to freedom above all else. These 18th-century philosophers sought to break the social and intellectual chains they thought bound them and return to the freedom and equality they determined was their birthright.
The phrase “free and open-source software” or FOSS can be ambiguous and misleading. Free software can either refer to software that people can copy for free without violating the law or to software whose source code is licensed in such a way that it can be examined and even modified by users. Similarly, open-source software is generally regarded as software whose source code is officially available to the public and can be modified into new programs whose source code must also be available to the public.
The concept of revolution, with all its political and social implications, is important in understanding the trajectory of the free and open-source software movement. FOSS leaders explicitly thought of themselves as revolutionaries. And like many...
Christopher Tozzi is a technology analyst and senior lecturer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. A former history professor, Tozzi is now best known for his expertise in cloud computing, application development, open-source software, and virtualization.
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