FOSS, history and philosophy
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Thank you for the introduction to FOSS. Let me know if you need any other information.
FOSS, history and philosophy
- 1. Introduction to FOSS By: Ahmed Mekkawy AKA linuxawy ahmed@linuxawy.org
- 2. What's SFD? ● Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).
- 3. What will we talk about today ● Brief history about Free Software movement. ● Some Concepts ● FOSS in the future ● A strategic look
- 4. History of GNU ● Richard Stallman (RMS) ● A printer driver ?? ● What's GNU? Gnu's Not Unix :) ● A project to stop companies monopoly of our computers.
- 5. Linux ● Linus Trovalds, the finnish guy. ● Freax? No thanks, linux is better :) ● Initially a terminal emulator, then a kernel. ● Tux, the official mascot.
- 6. GNU/Linux evolution in the first 8 years 8,000,000 1,600,000 7,000,000 1,400,000 6,000,000 1,200,000 Lines of Code Users 5,000,000 1,000,000 4,000,000 800,000 3,000,000 600,000 2,000,000 400,000 1,000,000 200,000 0 0 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 (ver (ver0.01) (ver0.96) (ver0.99) (ver1.0) (ver1.2) (ver2.0) (ver2.1) 2.1.11)
- 7. Examples of FOSS ● OS: GNU/Linux ● Programming languages: C/C++, Ocaml, PHP, Python, Ruby, Lua, .. etc ● Servers: Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL, .. etc ● End user applications: Firefox, OpenOffice.Org, VLC medial player, … etc
- 8. FOSS is not only in Software ● Wikipedia.org ● OSWD.org (OpenSource Web Designs) ● OpenCores.org (hardware) ● Open Cola ● Open Data ( scientific data) ● ChemCollective.org
- 9. Quote ● You can’t better the world by simply talking to it. Philosophy to be effective must be mechanically applied. ● Buckminster Fuller
- 10. Some Concepts ● Unix ● BSD ● GNU tools ● Linux kernel ● GNU/Linux ● GNU OS (GNU/Hurd, Debian GNU/Hurd) ● Debian GNU/kFreeBSD
- 11. Philosophy ● “Free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer.” ● Open Source is a development methodology; Free Software is a social movement. ● http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/
- 12. 4 Freedoms ● The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0). ● The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this. ● The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2). ● The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- 13. Licensing ● Copyleft. ● GPL: grants the 4 freedoms, with other stuff too. ● CreativeCommons: where GPL can't be used. ● Others: BSD license, Apache license, … etc.
- 14. GNU/Linux Distributions ● It's an OS built based on Linux using GNU tools and lots of other FOSS projects. ● Most famous ones currently are: – Debian – Ubuntu – RHEL (RedHat) / CentOS – Fedora ● Currently active arabic distro is Ojuba and Joatha, the discontinued ones are alot, though.
- 15. FOSS Community & LUG ● If you didn't get it yet, free software can't be made with individuals, it needs a big community as it's based on code contributions. ● Public recognition in such communities is a big motive for lots of people. ● LUGs are local communities centered about FOSS, like EGLUG.org (Egypt GNU/Linux Users Group).
- 16. FOSS communities in Egypt ● Linux Egypt ● EGLUG.org ● LinuxAC.org ● Ubuntu Egypt ● OSUM ● FSF arabia, will it happen someday?
- 17. Quote ● You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. ● Buckminster Fuller
- 18. Future of FOSS ● PCs: – GNU/Linux is gaining ground, rising quickly in usability in the last few years (which mainly was its drawback). – Companies jumped in (Google Chrome OS). ● Embedded systems: – Gaining ground as currently writing an OS especially for an embedded system is not worth it in most of cases, simply install linux in lots of current systems. ● Mobile devices: – The next (or current?) hype for linux. Android is linux based. But Maemo/Meego is the really interesting thing: Linux+GNU+Debian stack+X+Gnome+QT
- 19. Quote ● First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. ● Mahatma Gandhi
- 20. A Strategic look ● Our country is low on financial resources, which doesn't give us lots of fields to success at. ● If we look at the software field without the FOSS, it's already dominated by big players. We can't compete with them cause we don't know the know-how of operating systems, database engines, .. etc. All we can do is some websites and somethings like that, but we can't touch the core technologies.
- 21. A Strategic look (Cont'd) ● FOSS gives us the knowledge, and IT doesn't mainly rely on big finance. ● If we tried to work with proprietary software, we will be salesmen for the big players (For example who creates a website using .net and SQL server, forces his client to buy these licenses). ● The know-how gives us the ability to enhance the current solutions and even create our own. So we won't be limited to waiting for new releases of proprietary software. ● We shouldn't be controlled by a certain company/entity.
- 22. What's in it for me? ● End user: better and cheaper software. ● Developer: very big learning resource, and technologies in continuous development. ● An enterpruneur / business guy: dramatically lower costs, having better customization, more easy to create your own product or provide your services.
- 23. Bottom Line ● You got freedoms, it's your right. Use them, and ask for them. ● You can help, so please contribute. ● Free Software is a social movement, it's an idea you can apply within your life outside the software prespective.
- 24. To know more ● http://www.gnu.org ● http://fsf.org ● http://eglug.org ● Revolution OS: the movie.