Larry Wall Quotes

One of the ways that Microsoft beat Apple way back in the day was that they were a lot more open; today, in the world I come from, the free software and open-source world, Microsoft is not generally viewed as open; they're viewed as proprietary.

I'm not of the opinion that all software will be open source software. There is certain software that fits a niche that is only useful to a particular company or person: for example, the software immediately behind a web site's user interface. But the vast majority of software is actually pretty generic.

Ubuntu is doing amazing things, and I think it's going to change the face of the desktop.

It is the fate of operating systems to become free.

While I personally believe strongly in the philosophy and ideology of the Free Software movement, you can't win people over just on philosophy; you have to have a better product, too.

I've never regretted not making Linux shareware: I really don't like the pay for use binary shareware programs.

When it comes to software, I much prefer free software, because I have very seldom seen a program that has worked well enough for my needs, and having sources available can be a life-saver.

I started working on OpenBSD, and many earlier projects, because I have always felt that vendor systems were not designed for quality.

Making Linux GPL'd was definitely the best thing I ever did.

GNU, which stands for Gnu's Not Unix, is the name for the complete Unix-compatible software system which I am writing so that I can give it away free to everyone who can use it.

The True-GNU philosophy is more extreme than I care for, but it certainly laid a foundation for the current scene, as well as providing real software.

Linux people do what they do because they hate Microsoft.

Linux is only free if your time has no value.

The biggest challenge for open source is that as it enters the consumer market, as projects like WordPress and Firefox have done, you have to create a user experience that is on par or better than the proprietary alternatives.

People sometimes ask me if it is a sin in the Church of Emacs to use vi. Using a free version of vi is not a sin; it is a penance. So happy hacking.

Making things open-source brings the cost down.

The beauty of open-source is that you can pick up right where someone left off and start right there.

There are lots of Linux users who don't care how the kernel works, but only want to use it. That is a tribute to how good Linux is.

The idea of free software is that users of computing deserve freedom. They deserve in particular to have control over their computing. And proprietary software does not allow users to have control of their computing.

When I first got into technology I didn't really understand what open source was. Once I started writing software, I realized how important this would be.

When I launched the development of the GNU system, I explicitly said the purpose of developing this system is so we can use our computers and have freedom, thus if you use some other free system instead but you have freedom, then it's a success. It's not popularity for our code but it's success for our goal.

I think the wonderful thing about vi is that it has such a good market share because we gave it away.

I think Linux is a great thing, because Linux is an alternative to Windows, and because, of all the operating systems that are at all relevant today, Unix is the best of a bad lot.

In the free/libre software movement, we develop software that respects users' freedom, so we and you can escape from software that doesn't.

I very seldom worry about other systems. I concentrate pretty fully on just making Linux the best I can.