Keith Cary Curtis

This book is interesting for the most part but at the end, it's not really so much about free software any more than it is about economic theory and politics. This sort of ruins the book, though I get the gist of Curtis' point, he didn't convince me on that part. It just seems like your typical mainstream American pro-Capitalism champion (which doesn't make sense, considering that he's advocating FOSS; which is not really optimised with profit in mind) rather than freethinking, thought-provoking original opinion.

In any case, I've been using FOSS for many years now. So I've understood the benefits and superiority with FOSS for a long time (for example, open source, by virtue of being open, rarely or never contains malware; the same cannot be said about proprietary software), and Curtis was preaching to the choir when I read this book. What Curtis did well was to show how corrupt the software industry is (e.g., Bill Gates attempting to own all patents) and how this corruption is slowing down progress for the sake of profit.

Curtis' prediction of open source software as the development model for artificial intelligence and colonisation of space may seem far-fetched and could give you an impression of an exaggerated--perhaps religiously fanatical--belief in the power of open source, but Curtis argues his case very well: open source is the future. No one's going to be using proprietary software in the future.

Before I read this book, I was very much thinking along the same lines as Keith Curtis on open source. To me, open source is the most scientific development model, because the scientific method is very much the same as open source, in that it's free, open and testable by anyone who wishes to improve upon a theory. So it was very nice to read a book that enforces my own point of view on the matter from a more experienced software developer (I'm not a software developer).

Perhaps the most interesting, freethinking and persuasive part of the book is when Curtis compares proprietary software with alchemy, and free software with the scientific revolution that took humanity out of the dark ages. Curtis makes an excellent point here, that should give anyone who's reading this book a serious contemplation on the indisputable potential of open source.

I would've given the book five stars, for its excellent collection of important thought-provoking quotes, history of software, recommendation of LISP and advocating the open source method in a cogent way. But what makes me give it only four stars is the end of the book where Curtis goes off on advocacy of "right-wing" politics/economy, which seems to me Curtis really doesn't understand how it contradicts his own advocacy of copyleft; but then again, Curtis is a software developer, not a politician or economist. And the software aspects of this book is where it really shines.

I bought the Kindle Edition in order to support the author, but the Android version of the Kindle reader didn't display this book perfectly (list and indent weren't displayed properly), so I found myself switching back and forth between the gratis PDF copy from time to time.

Other than that, this book is a very important reading. I will eventually write a more thorough review of the book.… (más)

"Interesting book! The book exposes the dominance of Microsoft and how it suppresses free software or Open source code such as Linux, which impedes Microsoft's profit margins if used widely. In other words, Microsoft (which isn't such a bad idea) teaches people to program their way...think of this in terms of the .NET Framework.

Without the .NET Framework, where would we be? Scary!

The book talks about how free software will play a key part in the 21st century renaissance. A must read for everyone (not just the programmers) this book opens up your mind and makes you see why we perceive Microsoft as the 'norm' when in fact we could do even 'better'."… (más)