“I think the open software movement (and Linux in particular) is laudable.”

— Ken Thompson

"Ken Thompson clarifies matters", 1999

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Ken Thompson 28

American computer scientist, creator of the Unix operating … 1943

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“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 (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project

2000s, Thus Spake Stallman (2000)

“As one person put it, "Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement."”

Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project

1990s, Why "Free Software" is better than "Open Source" (1998)
Context: While free software by any other name would give you the same freedom, it makes a big difference which name we use: different words convey different ideas.
In 1998, some of the people in the free software community began using the term "open source software" instead of "free software" to describe what they do. The term "open source" quickly became associated with a different approach, a different philosophy, different values, and even a different criterion for which licenses are acceptable. The Free Software movement and the Open Source movement are today separate movements with different views and goals, although we can and do work together on some practical projects.
The fundamental difference between the two movements is in their values, their ways of looking at the world. For the Open Source movement, the issue of whether software should be open source is a practical question, not an ethical one. As one person put it, "Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement." For the Open Source movement, non-free software is a suboptimal solution. For the Free Software movement, non-free software is a social problem and free software is the solution.

“Radical groups in the 1960s developed a reputation for factionalism: organizations split because of disagreements on details of strategy, and then treated each other as enemies. Or at least, such is the image people have of them, whether or not it was true.
The relationship between the Free Software movement and the Open Source movement is just the opposite of that picture. We disagree on the basic principles, but agree more or less on the practical recommendations. So we can and do work together on many specific projects. 'We don't think of the Open Source movement as an enemy. The enemy is proprietary software.”

Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project

1990s, Why "Free Software" is better than "Open Source" (1998)

“The GNU GPL was not designed to be ""open source"". I wrote it for the free software movement, and its purpose is to ensure every user of every version of the program gets the essential freedoms.”

Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project

""Re: GPL version 4"" on NetBSD mailing list (17 July 2008) http://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-users/2008/07/17/msg001546.html
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html for more explanation of the difference between free software and open source.
2000s

“"It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not." -Bill Gates, Fortune Magazine, July 17 2007”

Bill Gates (1955) American business magnate and philanthropist

2000s

“Releasing Linux versions has always been a matter of higher code quality, good software architecture, and technical interest for the platform.”

Timothee Besset French software programmer

Quoted in Maxim Bardin, "id Software and Linux – By TTimo" http://linuxgamingnews.org/2009/09/15/id-software-and-linux-by-ttimo/ Linux Gaming News (2009-09-15).

“The main reason there are no raw devices [in Linux] is that I personally think that raw devices are a stupid idea.”

Linus Torvalds (1969) Finnish-American software engineer and hacker

Message, linux-kernel mailing list, 1996-10-17, IU, Torvalds, Linus, 2017-04-25 http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/9610.2/0030.html,
1990s, 1995-99

“One of the difficulties in thinking about software is its huge variety. A function definition in a spreadsheet cell is software. A smartphone app is software. The flight management system for an Airbus A380 is software. A word processor is software. We shouldn't expect a single discipline of software engineering to cover all of these, any more than we expect a single discipline of manufacturing to cover everything from the Airbus A380 to the production of chocolate bars, or a single discipline of social organization to cover everything from the United Nations to a kindergarten. Improvement in software engineering must come bottom-up, from intense specialized attention to particular products.”

Michael A. Jackson (1936) British computer scientist

Michael A. Jackson in: K. De Grave (ed.) Formalism & Intuition in Software Development; A conversation with Michael A. Jackson conducted by Edgar G. Daylight and Bas van Vlijmen. 2015

“And then there is that one-man movement, Marcel Duchamp — for me a truly modern movement because it implies that each artist can do what he thinks he ought to — a movement for each person and open for everybody.”

Willem de Kooning (1904–1997) Dutch painter

1990's & from posthumous publications
Source: Quoted in A Brief History of American Culture (1996) by Robert M. Crunden, p. 279.

“I don’t really distinguish between Linux and things that are more or less direct descendants of Unix. I think they’re all the same at some level. Often, people ask me, "Do you feel jealous about Linux being the big thing." And the answer is no, for the same reason. I think they’re the same.”

Dennis M. Ritchie (1941–2011) American computer scientist

.
On Unix, Linux, and open-source (2001)

“I think the open software movement (and Linux in particular) is laudable.”

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Ken Thompson 28

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