Speaker: Richard Stallman
The GNU Operating System
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
EBU3b 1202

ABSTRACT
Richard Stallman will speak about the goals and philosophy of the Free Software Movement, and the status and history the GNU Operating System, which in combination with the kernel Linux is now used by tens of millions of users world-wide.

Richard Stallman launched the development of the GNU operating system in 1984. GNU is free software: everyone has the freedom to copy it and redistribute it, as well as to make changes either large or small. The GNU/Linux system, basically the GNU operating system with Linux added, is used on tens of millions of computers today.

"The reason I care especially, is that there is a philosophy associated with the GNU project, and this philosophy is actually the reason why there is a system--and that is that free software is not just convenient and not just reliable.... More important than convenience and reliability is freedom--the freedom to cooperate. What I'm concerned about is not individual people or companies so much as the kind of way of life that we have. That's why I think it's a distraction to think about fighting Microsoft."

BIO
Stallman has received the ACM Grace Hopper Award, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer award, and the Takeda Award for Social/Economic Betterment, as well as several honorary doctorates.