Free Software Linux

Forgive the self-linkage, but I have a had a feature published in today’s Guardian Technology section. It examines the recent growth of free software around the world and asks if the recession is the cause of it.

“Richard Stallman once wrote that the point about free software is it is “free as in freedom, not free as in beer”, meaning that people should be at liberty to do as they pleased with software, rather than subscribe to its restrictive licences. As the recession takes hold, the stress may be on the second half of his now-famous aphorism. To the millions downloading free software in a recession, the point is that it is free – as in free beer.”