Sam Williams is a journalist and technology writer who authored free-as-in-freedom-williams (2002), the first full-length biography of stallman. The book documents Stallman's childhood, his years at the mit-ai-lab during mit-ai-lab-hacker-culture-1971-1984, and the founding of the gnu-project and free-software-foundation.
Williams conducted extensive interviews with Stallman and his associates to produce an account that is both sympathetic and candid about Stallman's difficult personal style. The book captures the hacker-ethic-mit environment that shaped Stallman and traces the development of the four-freedoms philosophy and the copyleft mechanism.
The book was originally published by O'Reilly Media and later released under a free license. Stallman subsequently produced a revised edition — free-as-in-freedom-revised — updating and correcting portions of the narrative from his own perspective.
Williams's biography is the primary narrative source on Stallman's personal history and motivation, complementing the philosophical works collected in free-software-free-society. It is frequently cited alongside hackers-levy by steven-levy as essential background for understanding the founding-gnu-and-fsf-1983-1991 era.