News about Free Software, the GNU project and GNU applications

 Why schools should use exclusively free software, Nov 10, 2003

School should teach students ways of life that will benefit society as a whole. They should promote the use of free software just as they promote recycling. If schools teach students free software, then the students will use free software after they graduate. This will help society as a whole escape from being dominated (and gouged) by megacorporations. Those corporations offer free samples to schools for the same reason tobacco companies distribute free cigarettes: to get children addicted (1). They will not give discounts to these students once they grow up and graduate.

In many ways the differences between the Free Software and Open Source software movements have more to do with social goals than the software itself. The Free Software movement had its roots in Richard Stallman's initial effort to create a 'free' operating system. This effort led him to quit a job at MIT and begin working on it full-time. His primary goal and motivation was to create something to which all users had free and open access and that could be inspected and modified by the users themselves.

We can agree, or disagree, on whether the GPL is a good idea, and whether viral software licenses are a good idea, and whether open source software, in general, is a good idea. There are legitimate points of disagreement with respect to all those questions.

I'm always surprised, however, to find people upset at the idea that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is actually attempting to enforce the GNU Public License (GPL). Of course the FSF is going to try and enforce the GPL-- there'd be no point to the license otherwise. And it's perfectly obvious and clear from the history of the FSF and the GPL that they expect you to live up to it.

Webmaster's note: Warning: Contains some FUD

In the world of "free" open source software, there is no greater villain than SCO, owner of the Unix operating system.

The Lindon, Utah, company has outraged Linux lovers by suing IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ), claiming IBM stole Unix code and put it into Linux. Some fear the lawsuit by SCO will impede the adoption of Linux.

But the spread of Linux could be hurt by another group--and ironically, it's the free-software proponents themselves.

If the idea that the GNU/Linux operating system is about politics comes as a surprise to many of its users today, this is because they have forgotten its origin. The practice of calling the entire system "Linux" has led many to suppose it was started by Linus Torvalds in 1991. (Torvalds developed a kernel which, once freed in 1992, filled the last gap in the nearly complete GNU operating system.) They often say that the GNU project developed "tools," diminishing its real aim.

When I recommend a GNU/Linux distribution, I choose based on ethical considerations. Today I would recommend GNU/LinEx, the distribution prepared by the government of Extremadura, because that's the only installable distribution that consists entirely of free software. If I knew of more than one such distribution, I would choose between them based on practical considerations.

The project said it believes no source code was compromised. "The evidence includes the MO of the cracker, the fact that every file we've checked so far isn't compromised, and that searches for standard source Trojans turned up nothing," the group stated.

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