Thou Shalt not Print: Why Software Freedom Matters

thou shalt not print Why Software Freedom Matters Sameer Verma, Ph.D. Professor Information Systems Department San Francisco State University San Francisco, California [email_address] http://verma.sfsu.edu Seminar in Dr. Lila Rao-Graham's MIS course Mona School of Business, University of the West Indies, Jamaica -- forbidden fruit , book of Jobs

The iPad cannot print
May 2010. The iPad cannot print
Cannot print or will not print?
Who gets to decide?
http://www.macrumors.com/2010/05/10/steve-jobs-says-printing-will-come-for-ipad/

A clever hack!

Defective by design
Planned obsolescence
http://defectivebydesign.org

Once upon a time... http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7707585592627775409

GNU Project
GNU = GNU's not Unix
recursive acronym
Started by Richard M. Stallman in 1985
http://groups.google.com/group/net.unix-wizards/msg/4dadd63a976019d7

Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Boston, MA, USA. We rely on support from individuals like you to carry out our worldwide mission to preserve, protect and promote the freedom to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer software, and to defend the rights of all free software users.

GNU General Public License
V1 - 1989
V2 - 1991
V3 – 2007
Most widely used FOSS License
FSF is the keeper of GPL

What does “Free” mean?
Free as in Freedom or Free as in Beer?
Free implies “zero cost”
Free implies “liberty”
or

Stallman's Four Freedoms
Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs.
Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
Freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.

Open Source Initiative
Created in 1998 to counter the confusion around the term “free”.“Free” is not business friendly.
Open Source – simply put, the source code is open.
First meeting
Eric Raymond, Bruce Perens, Larry Augustin, Jon “maddog” Hall, Christine Peterson, Todd Anderson, Sam Ockman, Michael Tiemann.
Christine Peterson suggested “open source”.

The Open Source Definition 1. Free Redistribution 2. Source Code 3. Derived Works 4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code 5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups 6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor 7. Distribution of License 8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product 9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software 10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral http://opensource.org/docs/osd

GPL Family - reciprocation
GNU General Public License or GPL
Lesser GPL, sometimes also referred to as Library GPL
GNU Free Documentation License or GFDL

BSD family - academic
Sourced from AT&T Unix
Heavily modified by UC Berkeley. Therefore called Berkeley Software Distribution.
See history at http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/kirkmck.html
Gave rise to many Unices, including Solaris, MacOSX, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD etc.
Have their own licenses.

So, which is it?
Free/Libr é Open Source Software (FLOSS)
Free Software (FS)
Open Source Software (OSS)
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
Varies by geography
Used interchangeably
What really matters is the license!

Licenses
Complete list of FSF licenses
http://www.fsf.org/licensing/education
Complete list of OSI Licenses
http://opensource.org/licenses/category

Creative Commons
Creative Commons is analogous to FOSS except that they create licenses for content and not code.
http://creativecommons.org/
Listen to this (a capella):
http://ccmixter.org/files/anjibee/19299
Then listen to this (nicely remixed under a CC license):
http://ccmixter.org/files/hepepe/20997
Creativity grows and flows when allowed to mingle.

FOSS: Use anywhere
Linux
Unix
Mac
DOS
Windows
...
OS Platform Object code Source code

Who uses FOSS
Google, HP, Intel, Oracle, IBM, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Internet Archive...and yes, Apple and Microsoft as well!
http://www.techdigest.tv/steve-ballmer-hands.jpg

Who uses FOSS
UWI Mona...
http://coe-msb.org

Who uses FOSS http://olpcjamaica.org.jm Providence Basic School, Kingston, Jamaica August Town Primary School, August Town, Jamaica

Who uses FOSS
...and Lidia in the jungles of Peru.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xby2uj_web-la-selva_tech

Learn more http://laptop.org

Explore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open_source_software

Questions? Ask away!

Made with the free stuff http://libreoffice.org

Thou Shalt not Print: Why Software Freedom Matters

by Sameer Verma

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