MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-02-21 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [hangout] RMS for our RIS
|
Where is my journal
On Thu, Feb 20, 2003 at 11:14:31PM -0500, akbar wrote:
>
> i heard nothing from this list after 4:30, so i thot i would send some
> info for the guys who are already bored. ;).
>
> RIS here comes RMS....hehe
>
>
>
> Subject:
> [Fsf-friends] RMS in Kolkata
> From:
> FN
> Date:
> Wed, 19 Feb 2003 23:11:05 +0530 (IST)
> To: fsf-friends-at-gnu.org.in
>
> URL : http://www.ilug-cal.org/node.php?id=78
>
> RMS Speaks [icon.gif]
> Submitted by [14]sankarshan on Wednesday, February 19, 2003 - 09:44
>
> Richard M Stallman, more famous by his acronym RMS, spoke for the
> greater part of 120 mins at K P Basu Memorial Hall of the Jadavpur
> University, at the meet organized by JU. The iLUG-Calcutta members
> were part of the audience and this is a account of the proceedings.
>
> RMS was scheduled to speak on GNU/Linux OS & the Free Software
> Movement. While generally not deviating from his previous speeches and
> presentations, the occasion was made memorable by the packed audience.
> For a hall with a comfortable seating capacity of ~200, there were
> those who stood & sat on the aisle and passage(s) throughout the 2
> hours.
>
> The session began with a prelude by Dr A N Basu the VC of JU,
> introducing RMS to the audience, though his frank admission was noted
> - RMS needs introduction to only a very few. His short introduction
> contained a viewpoint on the importance of societal knowledge and the
> need to perform acts for the greater good of the society. The Pro-VC
> of JU, Dr Ashok R Thakur, in his short speech integrated the need to
> program software with the concept of freedom [freedom as espoused by
> the FSF].
>
> The freedom to run the program, the freedom to study how the
> program works and adapt it to one's
> needs, the freedom to redistribute the program to help users and the
> freedom to improve the program and release the improvements to the
> public. In this he used a Russian parable of Gorky to illustrate the
> untiring courage of path breakers and evangelists who had the courage
> and the vision to forsee the need to make people aware of freedom or
> the lack of it in their daily life. He so correctly pointed out that
> the issue transcends the economic sphere into a socio-political
> domain. The business model of proprietary and monopolistic software
> and the associated development model needs to be put under the scanner
> according to him.
>
> RMS expressed the need to speak about the socio-political issue
> associated with software development. In his opinion, every software
> project has a self-serving nature in that its richness is built when
> the community participates in its evolution. A community based
> development model implements good and moral rules of the society and
> thus helps in building up the community itself. The software slowly
> evolves like a city. By means of the now legendary Xerox laser printer
> model at MIT, he drew a picture of how the proprietary model involving
> Non Disclosure Agreement(s) stifle productivity and lead to a closed
> community of programmers working in secrecy. And although paradoxical,
> Free Software support actually follows the laws of market economics so
> as to ensure that the developmental model is not hindered or hampered
> in any way. While non-free software represents in his belief, a choice
> of "masters", the goal of Free Software is the one that should be more
> publicised. At this point he talked about the motivation for people
> who write/create free software. He thinks, and is aware of, the need
> for people to break the shackles. Some do it for the fun of it, some
> as a consequence of their political idealogical leanings while some do
> it for money and appreciation. But whatever maybe the reason for
> creation of such software, the GNU/Linux movement is a strong one. He
> expressed a desire to make people more aware of the role of the FSF in
> the proliferation of the strong and vibrant free software scene. The
> end part of his talk was dominated by the DMCA, Software patents as
> well as the trusted computing initiative from Intel & Windows. And
> hypothesizing about a time when such shackles on intellectual property
> would make it impossible to work in a computing environment.
>
> RMS's alter ego St IGNUcius of the Church of Emacs also dropped in
> with his holy blessings on the proceedings.
>
> Some of the memorable quotes of the day :
>
> On being asked if using vi [in the Church of Emacs was a sin] he
> admitted [as St IGNUcius ] that using vi was not a sin but a penance.
> On the restrictive and evil influence of monopolistic and proprietary
> business model, RMS described the incident with the laser printer and
> the need for a source code as "We became prisoners of our own
> software"
>
> At the end of the 2 hours, after the distribution of 'some GNU/Linux'
> stickers was over, the members of the ilUG-Calcutta had a short but
> interesting interaction with RMS. While personal doubts about the
> licensing regime and the FSF movement were answered, the individual
> feelings are best left to be discussed in a meeting.
>
> RMS's writings, speeches and quotes as well as reports on recent
> activities are available at his personal home page
> [16]www.stallman.org
>
>
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>
>
>
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