Portland, Oregon is the unlikely capital of a global software revolution. The revolution is called Open Source. And its leader? Linus Torvalds, the reclusive founder of Linux.
Please note the date on the article. It's May 19, 2006. Free software has been around in computer terms since the very dawn of time. Linus really isn't reclusive. Yet the use of that term creates the real connotation of a Howard Hughes like figure reclusively writing code but really out of touch with the business world. This characterization is completely silly to anyone that actually know Linus. He's a solid family man with kids. He's also a top flight engineer who does a pretty good job with the linux kernal.
For the longest time the propriatary software vendors called free software thinkers communists. When Richard Stallman started out in the 80s it was very common to call the man a communist and his ideas communistic. Yet Stallman's ideas are rooted in the very essence of freedom and in existing copyright law. Current detractors of the free software movement have taken to calling the movement "commonists" in reference both communists and the shared creative commons of ideas.
Language is important. It frames the terms of the debate. For example the term digital rights management (DRM) for short doesn't really describe the rights the consumer has with his or her purchased media. Instead it really describes the rights of the copyright holder to restrict a consumers usage of the media. The FSF has recognized this has launched several efforts to push back on the language used to describe digital restricts management. They have recently launched Defective By Design a site devoted to the pointing out a simple fact - DRM is indeed defective by design.
