Interpreting the Free Software Movement as Religion

A person should aspire to live an upright life openly with pride, and this means saying “No” to proprietary software.

        - RMS

Introduction

The Free Software movement which began in earnest twenty-five years ago has become one of the most quietly influential movements of the Internet age. Today, many social phenomenas occurring in our networked world, such as Wikileaks, can be understood more completely by understanding the Free Software movement. The Free Software movement can be usefully analyzed from many perspectives however, this paper will use the lens of religion. Specifically, the movement will be analyzed from the context of selected writing from its founder, Richard M. Stallman, using the categories defined by Mircea Eliade. Through the use of Eliade's categories one understands Stallman to be demarcating the sacred from the profane in an attempt to return to an archaic past.

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