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I have just finished a new book about free software. Excerpt: Given the technology that's already available, we should have cars that drive us around, in absolute safety, while we lounge in the back and sip champagne. All we need is a video camera on the roof, plugged into a PC, right? We have all the necessary hardware, and have had it for years, but don't yet have robot-driven cars because we don't have the software. This book explains how we can build better software and all get our own high-tech chauffeur.
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Here is the start:
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Given
the technology that's already available, we should have cars that
drive us around, in absolute safety, while we lounge in the back and
sip champagne. All we need is a video camera on the roof, plugged
into a PC, right? We have all the necessary hardware, and have had it
for years, but don't yet have robot-driven cars because we don't have
the software. This book explains how we can build better software and
all get our own high-tech chauffeur.
The key to faster
technological progress is the more widespread use of free software.
Free versus proprietary (or non-free) software is similar to the
divide between science and alchemy. Before science, there was
alchemy, where people guarded their ideas because they wanted to
corner the market on the means to convert lead into gold. The
downside of this “strategy” is that everyone would have to learn
for themselves that drinking mercury is a bad idea. The end of the
Dark Ages arrived when man started to share advancements in math and
science for others to use and improve upon. In fact, one way to look
at history is to divide it between periods of progress and
stagnation.
Computers are an advancement whose importance is
comparable to the invention of the wheel or movable type. While
computers and the Internet have already changed many aspects of our
lives, we still live in the dark ages of computing because
proprietary software is still the dominant model. One might say that
the richest alchemist who ever lived is my former boss, Bill Gates.
(Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and
Larry Page are close behind.)
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The book talks about
why free software is superior, implications for Google, the Java
mess, patents and copyright, Vista, remaining challenges for free
software, and many other things.
The book is available on
Lulu: http://www.lulu.com/content/4964815
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