Software History

Early computing: software included with hardware, minimal separation
1960's: some proprietary software, practitioners continue to share, source often came with OS
1970's: beginnings of free software (Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT, Richard Stallman)
1980's: first US software patents (1981), formal announcement of GNU project (1983)
1990's: explosion of Free Software co-dependent with the Internet vs. explosion of patent applications

Early computing: software included with hardware, minimal separation