Richard M. Stallman Free Software Speech + Church of Emacs Skit @ University of San Francisco
If you have a few minutes, have a look at the following videos I recorded of Richard M. Stallman speaking to the students, teachers, and guests of the Computer Science Department at the University of San Francisco (event link). The talk covered the principals of Free Software and what it means to the world at large (photoset). Richard M. Stallman, as you will see, is a very animated speaker who believes wholeheartedly in the GNU philosophy/project, which he founded, and travels tirelessly around the world (sponsored by the supporters of the Free Software Froundation) to spread his message of freedom computing to all.
Bottom line, he believes that knowledge and access to technologies and software should not be locked up by a selected few (i.e. proprietary software vendors) and that everyone should have the ability to use/share/study their software as they see fit and protect themselves from restrictive and/or malicious code (i.e. surveillance or DRM hooks). In addition, he advocates the use of open source drivers to free computer hardware from manufacture restrictions and limitations on the user.
Free Software Speech - USF [Download OGG Theora Video]
Church of Emacs Skit - USF [Download OGG Theora Video]
* The lighter, more comedic side of Richard M. Stallman
Below is an excerpt from the GNU project about Free Software.
What is Free Software?
“Free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in”free speech”, not as in “free beer”.Free software is a matter of the users’ freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:
- The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
- The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
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About
Alexander Grundner is a San Francisco Peninsula based web publisher who spends most of his time tracking down news stories for eHomeUprade, attending technology events, or working on his next big project.
For fun he likes to stay active outdoors, take photographs, shoot video, hack together PHP/Python code, play with Linux, and test new technologies.
Fantastic and inspiration to all.