The document describes a free software course for undergraduate students at Université Paris Diderot that has been offered annually since 2007. The course consists of 8 weeks of lectures covering topics like the history and philosophy of free software, followed by 4-5 weeks where students complete individual research projects on free software topics and present their findings to the class. Typical project topics include prominent figures in the free software movement, Linux distributions, free software projects like Wikipedia, and social issues related to free software. The goal is to introduce students to the concepts of free and open source software through classroom instruction and hands-on projects.

1. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
A Free Software course for undergraduates
An experience report
Ralf Treinen
UFR Informatique
Universit´ Paris Diderot
e
treinen@pps.jussieu.fr

2. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
The course
Course given once per year since 2007
Format: 2h per week in a classroom.
Audience:
Second-year undergraduate students at Universit´ Paris-7
e
Students from all subject areas, except . . .
. . . Computer Science (they have their own course in the 4th
year)
This is one of the courses that students may take outside of
their specific curriculum.
Previous years: 6 to 20 students per year.

3. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
The course
Course given once per year since 2007
Format: 2h per week in a classroom.
Audience:
Second-year undergraduate students at Universit´ Paris-7
e
Students from all subject areas, except . . .
. . . Computer Science (they have their own course in the 4th
year)
This is one of the courses that students may take outside of
their specific curriculum.
Previous years: 6 to 20 students per year.

4. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
The course
Course given once per year since 2007
Format: 2h per week in a classroom.
Audience:
Second-year undergraduate students at Universit´ Paris-7
e
Students from all subject areas, except . . .
. . . Computer Science (they have their own course in the 4th
year)
This is one of the courses that students may take outside of
their specific curriculum.
Previous years: 6 to 20 students per year.

5. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
The course
Course given once per year since 2007
Format: 2h per week in a classroom.
Audience:
Second-year undergraduate students at Universit´ Paris-7
e
Students from all subject areas, except . . .
. . . Computer Science (they have their own course in the 4th
year)
This is one of the courses that students may take outside of
their specific curriculum.
Previous years: 6 to 20 students per year.

6. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
The course
Course given once per year since 2007
Format: 2h per week in a classroom.
Audience:
Second-year undergraduate students at Universit´ Paris-7
e
Students from all subject areas, except . . .
. . . Computer Science (they have their own course in the 4th
year)
This is one of the courses that students may take outside of
their specific curriculum.
Previous years: 6 to 20 students per year.

7. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
The course
Course given once per year since 2007
Format: 2h per week in a classroom.
Audience:
Second-year undergraduate students at Universit´ Paris-7
e
Students from all subject areas, except . . .
. . . Computer Science (they have their own course in the 4th
year)
This is one of the courses that students may take outside of
their specific curriculum.
Previous years: 6 to 20 students per year.

8. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
The course
Course given once per year since 2007
Format: 2h per week in a classroom.
Audience:
Second-year undergraduate students at Universit´ Paris-7
e
Students from all subject areas, except . . .
. . . Computer Science (they have their own course in the 4th
year)
This is one of the courses that students may take outside of
their specific curriculum.
Previous years: 6 to 20 students per year.

9. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Previous knowledge of students
Everybody uses a computer (in particular for word processing)
Very few have a completely free software installation
(GNU/Linux) on their own computer.
University computers used for teaching are FreeBSD, but
students are rarely aware of the fact that this is free.
At home, students often use isolated free software
(OpenOffice)
Wikipedia (as another free project) is more “visible” with its
particular philosophy

10. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Previous knowledge of students
Everybody uses a computer (in particular for word processing)
Very few have a completely free software installation
(GNU/Linux) on their own computer.
University computers used for teaching are FreeBSD, but
students are rarely aware of the fact that this is free.
At home, students often use isolated free software
(OpenOffice)
Wikipedia (as another free project) is more “visible” with its
particular philosophy

11. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Previous knowledge of students
Everybody uses a computer (in particular for word processing)
Very few have a completely free software installation
(GNU/Linux) on their own computer.
University computers used for teaching are FreeBSD, but
students are rarely aware of the fact that this is free.
At home, students often use isolated free software
(OpenOffice)
Wikipedia (as another free project) is more “visible” with its
particular philosophy

12. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Previous knowledge of students
Everybody uses a computer (in particular for word processing)
Very few have a completely free software installation
(GNU/Linux) on their own computer.
University computers used for teaching are FreeBSD, but
students are rarely aware of the fact that this is free.
At home, students often use isolated free software
(OpenOffice)
Wikipedia (as another free project) is more “visible” with its
particular philosophy

13. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Previous knowledge of students
Everybody uses a computer (in particular for word processing)
Very few have a completely free software installation
(GNU/Linux) on their own computer.
University computers used for teaching are FreeBSD, but
students are rarely aware of the fact that this is free.
At home, students often use isolated free software
(OpenOffice)
Wikipedia (as another free project) is more “visible” with its
particular philosophy

14. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
First part of the course: lecture (8 weeks)
Introduction
Foundation of computing (3 lectures) : programming (Logo),
issues in software engineering, operating systems, . . .
History of free software
Philosophy of free and open source software, legal aspects
(licences)
Software development in the FOSS world - the cathedral and
the bazaar
Debian as an example of a volunteer project
Economics of free software:
How is it possible to make money by publishing free software?
Why is it important for a client to buy a software solution that
is based on FOSS?

15. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
First part of the course: lecture (8 weeks)
Introduction
Foundation of computing (3 lectures) : programming (Logo),
issues in software engineering, operating systems, . . .
History of free software
Philosophy of free and open source software, legal aspects
(licences)
Software development in the FOSS world - the cathedral and
the bazaar
Debian as an example of a volunteer project
Economics of free software:
How is it possible to make money by publishing free software?
Why is it important for a client to buy a software solution that
is based on FOSS?

16. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
First part of the course: lecture (8 weeks)
Introduction
Foundation of computing (3 lectures) : programming (Logo),
issues in software engineering, operating systems, . . .
History of free software
Philosophy of free and open source software, legal aspects
(licences)
Software development in the FOSS world - the cathedral and
the bazaar
Debian as an example of a volunteer project
Economics of free software:
How is it possible to make money by publishing free software?
Why is it important for a client to buy a software solution that
is based on FOSS?

17. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
First part of the course: lecture (8 weeks)
Introduction
Foundation of computing (3 lectures) : programming (Logo),
issues in software engineering, operating systems, . . .
History of free software
Philosophy of free and open source software, legal aspects
(licences)
Software development in the FOSS world - the cathedral and
the bazaar
Debian as an example of a volunteer project
Economics of free software:
How is it possible to make money by publishing free software?
Why is it important for a client to buy a software solution that
is based on FOSS?

18. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
First part of the course: lecture (8 weeks)
Introduction
Foundation of computing (3 lectures) : programming (Logo),
issues in software engineering, operating systems, . . .
History of free software
Philosophy of free and open source software, legal aspects
(licences)
Software development in the FOSS world - the cathedral and
the bazaar
Debian as an example of a volunteer project
Economics of free software:
How is it possible to make money by publishing free software?
Why is it important for a client to buy a software solution that
is based on FOSS?

19. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
First part of the course: lecture (8 weeks)
Introduction
Foundation of computing (3 lectures) : programming (Logo),
issues in software engineering, operating systems, . . .
History of free software
Philosophy of free and open source software, legal aspects
(licences)
Software development in the FOSS world - the cathedral and
the bazaar
Debian as an example of a volunteer project
Economics of free software:
How is it possible to make money by publishing free software?
Why is it important for a client to buy a software solution that
is based on FOSS?

20. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
First part of the course: lecture (8 weeks)
Introduction
Foundation of computing (3 lectures) : programming (Logo),
issues in software engineering, operating systems, . . .
History of free software
Philosophy of free and open source software, legal aspects
(licences)
Software development in the FOSS world - the cathedral and
the bazaar
Debian as an example of a volunteer project
Economics of free software:
How is it possible to make money by publishing free software?
Why is it important for a client to buy a software solution that
is based on FOSS?

21. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
First part of the course: lecture (8 weeks)
Introduction
Foundation of computing (3 lectures) : programming (Logo),
issues in software engineering, operating systems, . . .
History of free software
Philosophy of free and open source software, legal aspects
(licences)
Software development in the FOSS world - the cathedral and
the bazaar
Debian as an example of a volunteer project
Economics of free software:
How is it possible to make money by publishing free software?
Why is it important for a client to buy a software solution that
is based on FOSS?

22. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
First part of the course: lecture (8 weeks)
Introduction
Foundation of computing (3 lectures) : programming (Logo),
issues in software engineering, operating systems, . . .
History of free software
Philosophy of free and open source software, legal aspects
(licences)
Software development in the FOSS world - the cathedral and
the bazaar
Debian as an example of a volunteer project
Economics of free software:
How is it possible to make money by publishing free software?
Why is it important for a client to buy a software solution that
is based on FOSS?

23. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
First part of the course: lecture (8 weeks)
Introduction
Foundation of computing (3 lectures) : programming (Logo),
issues in software engineering, operating systems, . . .
History of free software
Philosophy of free and open source software, legal aspects
(licences)
Software development in the FOSS world - the cathedral and
the bazaar
Debian as an example of a volunteer project
Economics of free software:
How is it possible to make money by publishing free software?
Why is it important for a client to buy a software solution that
is based on FOSS?

24. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Second part of the course: student projects (4-5 weeks)
Each student has to a small research project on a FOSS topic.
Presentation in class (about 30 minutes), plus questions from
the teacher and the class.
The teacher suggests a list of subjects, students are invited to
propose their own subject (done by about 50% of the
students)
Ideally, each students meets twice with the teacher before the
presentation to discuss literature, and structure of the talk.
Students are encouraged to be active (try to install a
software, contribute something to a free project like Wikipedia
or openstreetmap)

25. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Second part of the course: student projects (4-5 weeks)
Each student has to a small research project on a FOSS topic.
Presentation in class (about 30 minutes), plus questions from
the teacher and the class.
The teacher suggests a list of subjects, students are invited to
propose their own subject (done by about 50% of the
students)
Ideally, each students meets twice with the teacher before the
presentation to discuss literature, and structure of the talk.
Students are encouraged to be active (try to install a
software, contribute something to a free project like Wikipedia
or openstreetmap)

26. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Second part of the course: student projects (4-5 weeks)
Each student has to a small research project on a FOSS topic.
Presentation in class (about 30 minutes), plus questions from
the teacher and the class.
The teacher suggests a list of subjects, students are invited to
propose their own subject (done by about 50% of the
students)
Ideally, each students meets twice with the teacher before the
presentation to discuss literature, and structure of the talk.
Students are encouraged to be active (try to install a
software, contribute something to a free project like Wikipedia
or openstreetmap)

27. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Second part of the course: student projects (4-5 weeks)
Each student has to a small research project on a FOSS topic.
Presentation in class (about 30 minutes), plus questions from
the teacher and the class.
The teacher suggests a list of subjects, students are invited to
propose their own subject (done by about 50% of the
students)
Ideally, each students meets twice with the teacher before the
presentation to discuss literature, and structure of the talk.
Students are encouraged to be active (try to install a
software, contribute something to a free project like Wikipedia
or openstreetmap)

28. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Second part of the course: student projects (4-5 weeks)
Each student has to a small research project on a FOSS topic.
Presentation in class (about 30 minutes), plus questions from
the teacher and the class.
The teacher suggests a list of subjects, students are invited to
propose their own subject (done by about 50% of the
students)
Ideally, each students meets twice with the teacher before the
presentation to discuss literature, and structure of the talk.
Students are encouraged to be active (try to install a
software, contribute something to a free project like Wikipedia
or openstreetmap)

29. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Example projects
Richard Stallman and the FSF
LIMUX (Linux migration of the city of Munich)
Presentation of particular free software projects (OpenOffice,
Firefox, various games, various audio and video software).
Popular with students when they can talk about the software
they use for their hobby
Distributions : Redhat, Mandriva, Ubuntu, . . .
Software Patents
Other free projects : Wikipedia, wikitravel, openstreetmap, . . .
Social aspects : Women in Free Software

30. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Example projects
Richard Stallman and the FSF
LIMUX (Linux migration of the city of Munich)
Presentation of particular free software projects (OpenOffice,
Firefox, various games, various audio and video software).
Popular with students when they can talk about the software
they use for their hobby
Distributions : Redhat, Mandriva, Ubuntu, . . .
Software Patents
Other free projects : Wikipedia, wikitravel, openstreetmap, . . .
Social aspects : Women in Free Software

31. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Example projects
Richard Stallman and the FSF
LIMUX (Linux migration of the city of Munich)
Presentation of particular free software projects (OpenOffice,
Firefox, various games, various audio and video software).
Popular with students when they can talk about the software
they use for their hobby
Distributions : Redhat, Mandriva, Ubuntu, . . .
Software Patents
Other free projects : Wikipedia, wikitravel, openstreetmap, . . .
Social aspects : Women in Free Software

32. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Example projects
Richard Stallman and the FSF
LIMUX (Linux migration of the city of Munich)
Presentation of particular free software projects (OpenOffice,
Firefox, various games, various audio and video software).
Popular with students when they can talk about the software
they use for their hobby
Distributions : Redhat, Mandriva, Ubuntu, . . .
Software Patents
Other free projects : Wikipedia, wikitravel, openstreetmap, . . .
Social aspects : Women in Free Software

33. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Example projects
Richard Stallman and the FSF
LIMUX (Linux migration of the city of Munich)
Presentation of particular free software projects (OpenOffice,
Firefox, various games, various audio and video software).
Popular with students when they can talk about the software
they use for their hobby
Distributions : Redhat, Mandriva, Ubuntu, . . .
Software Patents
Other free projects : Wikipedia, wikitravel, openstreetmap, . . .
Social aspects : Women in Free Software

34. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Example projects
Richard Stallman and the FSF
LIMUX (Linux migration of the city of Munich)
Presentation of particular free software projects (OpenOffice,
Firefox, various games, various audio and video software).
Popular with students when they can talk about the software
they use for their hobby
Distributions : Redhat, Mandriva, Ubuntu, . . .
Software Patents
Other free projects : Wikipedia, wikitravel, openstreetmap, . . .
Social aspects : Women in Free Software

35. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Example projects
Richard Stallman and the FSF
LIMUX (Linux migration of the city of Munich)
Presentation of particular free software projects (OpenOffice,
Firefox, various games, various audio and video software).
Popular with students when they can talk about the software
they use for their hobby
Distributions : Redhat, Mandriva, Ubuntu, . . .
Software Patents
Other free projects : Wikipedia, wikitravel, openstreetmap, . . .
Social aspects : Women in Free Software

36. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Stocktaking
This is a course that is demanding (a lot of interaction), but
nice to give.
The students are interested by the course (one needs to keep
the right non-technical level).
The most interesting part for everybody is the project phase
(which provides a natural limit on the class size)

37. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Stocktaking
This is a course that is demanding (a lot of interaction), but
nice to give.
The students are interested by the course (one needs to keep
the right non-technical level).
The most interesting part for everybody is the project phase
(which provides a natural limit on the class size)

38. A Free Software course for undergraduatesAn experience report
Stocktaking
This is a course that is demanding (a lot of interaction), but
nice to give.
The students are interested by the course (one needs to keep
the right non-technical level).
The most interesting part for everybody is the project phase
(which provides a natural limit on the class size)