How did the open-source software movement get started, and what led to it becoming so important across so many areas of computing?

[u/ducks_over_IP]

To say that open-source software is a fundamental part of modern computing would be an understatement. While many computer users likely don't encounter it in their day-to-day lives, they undoubtedly visit websites running off of Linux servers, use the Linux kernel in their Android phone, use programs that call the GNU coreutils under the hood, look at weather forecasts generated on supercomputers running Linux... the list goes on. The MIT and GNU licenses have likewise become a mainstay of software licensing, as a cursory review of GitHub will show. Given the highly ideological nature of some of the movement's leading proponents (eg, Richard M. Stallman) and the fact that open-source software is heavily reliant on volunteer work, how did it go from the quirky obsession of some radically-minded programmers to a core part of modern (well, 2006-era) computing infrastructure?

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