But I'm not used to the kind of e-mail I received after I wrote a short speculative piece wondering whether any subset of the extraordinarily diverse group of people who fall under the term "free-software hackers" could have been involved in cracking Microsoft's internal network. I can shrug off the expletives or accusations that I am a Microsoft floozy, but it's a little less easy to be blasé in the face of the "shame on yous" and "you should know betters" that filled up my in box over the weekend. It's as if my mother was pursing her lips, shaking her head and wondering how a boy she raised could ever turn out so wayward. Those who knew my coverage of free software best were most dismayed -- I had betrayed them.

Accusations of betrayal cut pretty deep. And yet, even as I wince every time I check my mail, I am paradoxically heartened by the anger. I originally became obsessed with covering the free-software movement because I was fascinated by the passion that motivated so many free-software developers or advocates. The severity of their response to my article proved to me, once again, that I was playing with a fascinating holy fire.

Alas, if one becomes fascinated by sharp knives, sooner or later, one is likely to cut oneself. And in my haste to view the Microsoft cracking incident from the perspective of the free-software movement, I stabbed myself in the gut pretty good.

I won't retract my words -- I've been personally witness to enough tension between Microsoft and the free-software community that I still believe it is "not inconceivable" that a few misguided free-software adherents could have been involved. But I never meant to slander an entire community, and I'll concede that in the charged atmosphere of the moment, speculating without any evidence at all that free-software hackers might be guilty of a felonious assault on Microsoft was unwise and a little irresponsible. I could blame the 750-plus Slashdot posts I had just read before writing the piece -- some of which discussed the possibility that stolen Microsoft source code could help such open-source projects as WINE, the Windows emulator project that would allow Linux-based systems to run Microsoft applications -- but that would just be passing the buck.

Nor would any excuse address what to me are the really interesting questions raised by my correspondents. How could something as seemingly dry and mechanical as code inspire so much emotion? How could the sharing of software be an ideology? Perhaps most interestingly, many of my correspondents were motivated by a rage born of their assumption that I had impugned the honor of free software. Their position was that free-software/open-source software developers operated by a higher standard: They wouldn't stoop to stealing. Since when did a software development methodology include a code of ethics? What inspires the faith?

The Free Software Project
Read Andrew Leonard's book-in-progress on Linux and open source -- and post your comments.