This document provides an introduction to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), covering its definition, history, benefits, and equivalents to proprietary software. It outlines key milestones in the development of FOSS, such as the founding of the Free Software Foundation and the creation of notable Linux distributions. Additionally, it discusses the economic advantages, user freedoms, and when to consider using FOSS applications in different operating systems.

1. Introduction to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) By Dong B. Calmada PANACeA FOSS Training 3 February 2010 Bangkok, Thailand Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

2. Outline Learning Objectives

3. FOSS Defined

4. Brief Background of FOSS

5. Linux Distributions Timeline

6. Some Benefits of FOSS

7. Some Equivalents to Proprietary Softwares/Applications

8. When Does One Use FOSS?

9. Conclusion

10. Objectives For participants to: Explain what FOSS means.

11. Understand a brief history of FOSS.

12. Appreciate some of the benefits of FOSS.

13. Know FOSS equivalents to proprietary softwares/applications

14. FOSS defined

15. Brief Background of FOSS

16. Brief Background of FOSS (2) 1960s to 70s – Software sharing culture in US labs (Stanford, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, MIT)

17. 1976 – Bill Gates' “Open Letter to Hobbyists” advocating that software should be paid for, including royalties

18. Early 80s – LISP programming language was taken by MIT, to the dismay of hackers.

19. January 1984 – Richard Stallman quit job at MIT. Started to worked on GNU, a set of programming tools.

20. Brief Background of FOSS (3) 1986 – Free Software Foundation was born. To promote 'free software' and the GNU project.

21. 1990 – Bringing 'free software' to the corporate world with Cygnus.

22. 1991 – Linus Torvalds distributed a Unix-like kernel and encouraged everyone to help improve it. The kernel was later named “Linux” and then integrated with GNU into an operating system called “GNU/Linux”.

23. Brief Background of FOSS (4) 1992 – Xfree86 was born, the start of bringing GNU/Linux to the desktop level.