Books explaining Free Software for Children

J.B. Nicholson jbn at forestfield.org
Thu Jun 15 23:30:56 UTC 2017


Evaggelos Balaskas wrote:
> I don't know about that age (3-12) but one of the classics in that area
> (my opinion) is The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond

That essay focuses on developmental methodology and business interests 
("...and listen to your customers", case reviews on businesses like 
Netscape). Free software focuses on ethically of treating other people with 
regard to computers; free software isn't anti-business but the free 
software movement doesn't give primacy to business interests. These 
different philophies reach radically different ends when comparing the 
reaction to reliable, featureful proprietary software (as 
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html describes 
toward the end).

Raymond's essay refers to "Linux" as an operating system (or outright 
claims "the Linux operating system") despite that Linux is and was a kernel.

For free software rationale I recommend the material on 
https://audio-video.gnu.org/, the collected rms essays in "Free Software, 
Free Society", and asking rms directly by emailing rms at gnu.org.



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