History of FOSS

In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, it was normal for computer users to have the freedoms that are provided by
free software. Software was commonly shared by individuals who used computers and by hardware
manufacturers who were glad that people were making software that made their hardware useful.
Organizations of users and suppliers were formed to facilitate the exchange of software; see, for example,
SHARE and DECUS. By the late 1960s change was inevitable: software costs were dramatically increasing,
a growing software industry was competing with the hardware manufacturer's bundled software products
(free in that the cost was included in the hardware cost), leased machines required software support while
providing no revenue for software, and some customers able to better meet their own needs did not want the
costs of "free" software bundled with hardware product costs. In United States vs. IBM, filed January 17,
1969, the government charged that bundled software was anticompetitive. While some software might
always be free, there would be a growing amount of software that was for sale only. In the 1970s and early
1980s, the software industry began using technical measures (such as only distributing binary copies of
computer programs) to prevent computer users from being able to study and customize software they had
bought. In 1980 copyright law was extended to computer programs.
In 1983, Richard Stallman, longtime member of the hacker community at the MIT Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory, announced the GNU project, saying that he had become frustrated with the effects of the change
in culture of the computer industry and its users. Software development for the GNU operating system
began in January 1984, and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) was founded in October 1985. An article
outlining the project and its goals was published in March 1985 titled the GNU Manifesto. The manifesto also
focused heavily on the philosophy of free software. He developed The Free Software Definition and the
concept of "copyleft", designed to ensure software freedom for all.
The Linux kernel, started by Linus Torvalds, was released as freely modifiable source code in 1991. The
licence wasn't exactly a free software licence, but with version 0.12 in February 1992, he relicensed the
project under the GNU General Public License. Much like Unix, Torvalds' kernel attracted the attention of
volunteer programmers.
In 1997, Eric Raymond published The Cathedral and the Bazaar, a reflective analysis of the hacker
community and free software principles. The paper received significant attention in early 1998, and was one
factor in motivating Netscape Communications Corporation to release their popular Netscape Communicator
Internet suite as free software. This code is today better known as Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird.
Netscape's act prompted Raymond and others to look into how to bring free software principles and benefits
to the commercial software industry. They concluded that FSF's social activism was not appealing to
companies like Netscape, and looked for a way to rebrand the free software movement to emphasize the
business potential of the sharing of source code. The new name they chose was "open source", and quickly
Bruce Perens, publisher Tim O'Reilly, Linus Torvalds, and others signed on to the rebranding. The Open
Source Initiative was founded in February 1998 to encourage use of the new term and evangelize open source
principles.
Check the following link to get more about Free Open Source Software. You can also check here.