Z:gnu-www-ja-rms-nyu-2001-transcript--bf0060-But, 1990 was when the first c/en

But, 1990 was when the first corporation free software business was formed, which was Cygnus Support. And their business was to do, essentially, the same kind of thing that I'd been doing. I certainly could have worked for them, if I had needed to do that. Since I didn't need to, I felt it was good for the movement if I remained independent of any one company. That way, I could say good and bad things about the various free software and non-free software companies, without a conflict of interest. I felt that I could serve the movement more. But, if I had needed that to make a living, sure, I would have worked for them. It's an ethical business to be in. No reason I would have felt ashamed to take a job with them. And that company was profitable in its first year. It was formed with very little capital, just the money its three founders had. And it kept growing every year and being profitable every year until they got greedy, and looked for outside investors, and then they messed things up. But it was several years of success, before they got greedy.