Free Software: Freedom and Cooperation

Richard Stallman

Thursday, April 7, 2005
7:30 PM - Benedum Engineering Auditorium

Abstract

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

Biography of Speaker

Richard Stallman launched the development of the GNU operating system (see www.gnu.org) 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 the Linux kernel added, is used on tens of millions of computers today. 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.