Published at LXer:

For the first ten years of its life, free software was largely a hacker's tool. All the early programs – Emacs, GCC, Perl, Linux – were written by coders for coders (usually themselves). It was the rapid uptake of the Internet by business in the mid-1990s that led to free software being used by companies, not just their employees. [LXer presents this access to LWN's normally subscriber-only content in full cooperation with Jonathan Corbet, Executive editor, LWN.net. LXer hopes you enjoy this free peek at LWN's excellent community magazine and thanks Mr. Corbet for his cooperation.]

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