On January 31st 2009 I interviewed Richard Stallman founder of the GNU Project, and the Copy Left user license agreement. Unfortunately I kept saying copyright when I meant patent so try to overlook that error. GNU Linux is now most commonly known as Linux, but as Richard Stallman points out, that’s like naming the car after a guy who made an updated drive train.
Richard Stallman wrote nearly every piece of the original GNU is not Unix operating system. The name Linux came from Linux Torvalds who wrote the original Linux Kernel.
Stallman had some very important information on the security, or lack there of, in the Windows operating system. Microsoft can push out a patch, if they haven’t already, to allow Microsoft or the government to tunnel into your computer at any time. The open source programming community would not allow that to happen.
How NSA access was built into Windows
Microsoft Updates Windows Without User Permission, Apologizes
Mr. Stallman also makes some important points about the electronic voting machines. Many people have said electronic voting machines should use open source software, but Mr. Stallman points out, that even open source voting machines aren’t safe from tampering. The only way to assure the integrity of our voting system in the US is to go integrity paper.
One of Richard Stallman’s main causes is software freedom. Open source software is often called “free software,” but that is free as in freedom.
Even though open source software is generally free, it’s always good to make a donation to support the people who are fighting for your freedom. I always like to donate at least $5, or more if I can afford it when downloading open source software.
An example of why that matters is the MP3 file Format vs. OGG. The MP3 file format has many patenting issues, and has been a headache for people to license properly in order to use the technology. OGG is completely open source and therefore gives everyone the freedom to use OGG technology without fear of lawsuit.
If you would like to learn more about OGG, please go to www.vorbis.com. You can also get OGG players and encoding software from www.vorbis.com.
This show is edited using the open source program Audacity. Audacity is available for just about any operating system and can export audio files to OGG, MP3 and WAV formats.
Mr. Stallman declined to tell the listners what flavor of GNU Linux he uses, but I will state I personally use Ubuntu AKA “GNU Linux for human beings.”
An excellent alternative to Microsoft Office is OpenOffice. OpenOffice can now handle Microsoft Office 2007 file formats. Even if fiends and colleagues send you files in the latest Microsoft file formats you will be able to open and edit the files OpenOffice.
The latest version of Microsoft Office (2007) is selling on Amazon.com for $379.99. That’s a lot of money you can save by using OpenOffice. I hope you will show your appreciation for their work as I have on several different occasions by donating $5 to $20. Just think of how much money they are saving you.
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