APPropriate Behaviour
The book about all the things software writers do that aren't writing software.
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Category Archives: freesoftware
[objc retain]; continues apace
I just finished recording episode 35 of [objc retain]; the stream on Objective-C programming with Free Software that I co-host with Steven Baker. It is available on Twitch and you can subscribe there to get notified about new episodes. It … Continue reading
Posted in FLOSS, freesoftware, gnustep, objc
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In which I misunderstood Objective-C
I was having a think about this short history of Objective-C, and it occurred to me that perhaps I had been thinking about ObjC wrong. Now, I realise that by thinking about ObjC at all I mark myself out as … Continue reading
Posted in cocoa, design, freesoftware, gnustep, nextstep, objc
Tagged History of Software Engineering
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Whoever “wins”, software freedom loses
I’d like to start by recapping the three distinct categories of interest in software freedom. This is definitely my categorisation, though only the third is novel and the first two have long histories of common recognition so this is hardly … Continue reading
Posted in FLOSS, freesoftware, fsf, GNU
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Free as in Water
The whole “Free as in beer versus free as in freedom” thing confuses people. Or maybe it doesn’t, and it allows detractors to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt over free software by feigning confusion. Either way, people express confusion. What … Continue reading
Posted in freesoftware
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Concrete freedoms
Discussions about free software or open source software can always seem a bit abstract. Who cares if I’ve got the source code, if I’m never going to read it or change it? Why would I want “free” versions of my … Continue reading
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Empowered free software
Free and open source software has traditionally been defined as the opposite of something else: proprietary (or commercially-licensed) software. That’s particularly obvious in the name of the GNU project, which calls itself “Not UNIX” – a popular AT&T-owned commercial software … Continue reading
Posted in freesoftware, GNU
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More on freedom and licensing
Last month, I asked whether Freedom Zero is such a great idea, whether it’s OK to limit the freedom to use the software for any purpose if you dislike the purpose to which you believe someone will put it. I … Continue reading
Posted in Business, freesoftware, Responsibility
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I frequently see posts/articles/screeds asking why people don’t contribute to open source. If it’s important that recipients of open source software contribute upstream, and you are angry when they don’t, why use licences like MIT, Apache, GPL or BSD that … Continue reading
Free Software should welcome contributions by Apple, Google
It started with a toot from the FSF: Freedom means not #madebygoogle or #madebyapple, it means #madebythousandsoffreesoftwarehackers #GNU This post is an expansion on my reply: @fsf as an FSF Associate I’m happy to use software made by Google or … Continue reading
Posted in AAPL, freesoftware
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Open Source: because I got mine, so fuck you
The Free Software movement has at its core the idea that people have the freedom to use, study, share, and improve the software on their computers. The modern developer “ecosystem” has co-opted this to create a two-tier society: a developer … Continue reading
Posted in freesoftware
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