A Quote by Richard Stallman

Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement.

Richard Stallman

Quote Topics

Development Free Free Software Methodology Movement Open Open Source Social Software Source

Quote Author

Richard Stallman
American - Scientist
Born: March 16, 1953

I never imagined that the Free Software Movement would spawn a watered-down alternative, the Open Source Movement, which would become so well-known that people would ask me questions about "open source" thinking that I work under that banner.

Richard Stallman

If the DHS insists, as bureaucracies are apt to do, that open-source must be certified via a sanctioned, formal process, it will interfere with the informal process of open-source itself. It seems to me the DHS is trying to turn an open-source development project into a Microsoft (or IBM or Oracle) software development project. And we know what that means: more, not fewer, errors -- security and otherwise.

Mark Hall

In software, consultants sometimes tell you to buy into certain software-development methods to the exclusion of other methods. That’s unfortunate because if you buy into any single methodology 100 percent, you’ll see the whole world in terms of that methodology. In some instances, you’ll miss opportunities to use other methods better suited to your current problem.

Steve McConnell

The more money Automattic makes, the more we invest into Free and Open Source software that belongs to everybody and services to make that software sing.

Matt Mullenweg

I'm not of the opinion that all software will be open source software. There is certain software that fits a niche that is only useful to a particular company or person: for example, the software immediately behind a web site's user interface. But the vast majority of software is actually pretty generic.

Brian Behlendorf

While free software was meant to force developers to lose sleep over ethical dilemmas, open source software was meant to end their insomnia.

Evgeny Morozov

Like many older fans of Free Software and Open Source, I have discovered that it is really only free in the sense that the time you spend on it is worthless.

Erik Naggum

In the free/libre software movement, we develop software that respects users' freedom, so we and you can escape from software that doesn't.

Richard Stallman

There is a strong movement towards increased accountability for software developers and software development organizations.

Kent Beck

If an open source product gets good enough, we'll simply take it. So the great thing about open source is nobody owns it - a company like Oracle is free to take it for nothing, include it in our products and charge for support, and that's what we'll do. So it is not disruptive at all - you have to find places to add value. Once open source gets good enough, competing with it would be insane. We don't have to fight open source, we have to exploit open source.

Larry Ellison

The future is a process, not a destination. Richard Stallman is a guy my age. I sympathize with Richard rather more than I sympathize with Richard's open-source ideas, but the guy's a mortal human being and so is his social movement. Open-source is a means of production.

Bruce Sterling

One of the ways that Microsoft beat Apple way back in the day was that they were a lot more open; today, in the world I come from, the free software and open-source world, Microsoft is not generally viewed as open; they're viewed as proprietary.

Jimmy Wales

Free open-source software, by its nature, is unlikely to feature secret back doors that lead directly to Langley, Va.

Evgeny Morozov

Certainly there's a phenomenon around open source. You know free software will be a vibrant area. There will be a lot of neat things that get done there.

Bill Gates

We're not done yet, but two things WordPress has been able to exemplify is that open source can create great user experiences and that it's possible to have a successful commercial entity and a wider free software community living and working in harmony.

Matt Mullenweg

In true open source development, there's lots of visibility all the way through the development process.

Brian Behlendorf