hi.
FYI:
Richard Stallman, president of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and
founder of the GNU Project (http://www.gnu.org/), will be speaking in
the
Burlington area on April 17 and 18.
o Thursday, April 17, 4:30 p.m., St. Michael's College;
"Copyright versus
Community in the Age of Computer Networks" in Cheray 101
o Friday, April 18, 9:30 a.m., Champlain College; "The Free Software
Movement and the GNU/Linux Operating System" in the Alumni Auditorium.
GNU is "free software" and a different concept from open source
software.
Per the GNU Web site...
=====
"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.
=====
The GNU/Linux system, basically the GNU operating system with Linux
added,
is used on tens of millions of computers today. Stallman has received
the
ACM Grace Hopper Award, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, the
Electronic
Frontier Foundation's Pioneer award, and the Takeda Award for
Social/Economic Betterment, as well as several honorary doctorates.
For more information see:
http://www.fsf.org/events/colchestervt20080417
http://www.fsf.org/events/burlington20080418
I am not the organizer of either of these (see the links above for
organizer information). As I'm an Adjunct instructor at Champlain
College, I thought I'd make this list aware of the second event in
the Burlington Area.
Thanks!
have a day.yad
jdpf
