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FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the free-as-in-freedom dept.

bkuhn writes "The FSF has posted a a call for nominations for the 2002 FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software. Get your nominations in to <award-nominations@gnu.org> by 15 October 2002."

14 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Gates by undeg+chwech · · Score: 5, Funny

    I nominate Bill Gates. He should get the award for advancing free software

    1. Re:Gates by packeteer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      haha

      I dont know if this is a troll but i sure hope not. I think this is true that Bill Gates is the reason for a lot opf the growth of free software. Microsoft's crappy quality is about 80% of the reason for my switch to Linux. Once i started learning about free software i stuck with it more but really its MS that pushed me over the "hump" of switching away from windows.

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  2. I nominate KaZaa by anotherone · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've downloaded more free software from kazaa than I ever have from any other source.

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  3. Blender! by The_Dougster · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Blender Foundation has done an unprecedented thing by raising so much cash to bring Blender into the Free Software Fold. I'm not aware of any program in the free software base which is so sophisticated as a 3d modeler. I think they are pioneers and should be lauded for their efforts!

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    Clickety Click ...
  4. Valgrind by Otter · · Score: 4, Interesting
    This seems to be more a lifetime award than a "Year's Best" but since discussing what the year's biggest contribution should be is a lot more productive and less flame-y:

    I'm going to nominate Valgrind. It's going to greatly improve the performance of Linux software across the board, and puts professional grade profiling in the hands of every MP3 playlist coder on Freshmeat.

    What else? Nothing much happened this year. I'd suggest the Mono developers who seem to have accomplished a lot, but won't because I haven't tried it myself and because it's not especially relevant yet (if ever). Mozilla got a lot better, but they did so much bragging up front I'm not inclined to puff them up again now that they've finally accomplished something.

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  5. Shouldn't this be... by corrosiv · · Score: 4, Insightful


    The GNU Award for the Advancement of GNU Software?

    Define "free" however you like, but I hate hearing "free" when it means GNU. If they want to be so pickey about defining all their terms, they should stop leaning on the ambiguity that the term "free" gives them. The neophyte immediately understands free to be free beer. GNU is exploiting that, since 6 pages of legalese in the GPL doesn't add up to free beer OR free speech.

    1. Re:Shouldn't this be... by Idarubicin · · Score: 3, Insightful
      The neophyte immediately understands free to be free beer. GNU is exploiting that, since 6 pages of legalese in the GPL doesn't add up to free beer OR free speech.

      But it is free like beer. You can take it, and you can use it yourself, and it doesn't cost you a penny. Actually, it's better than beer, because you can redistribute GPL'ed code as long as you follow the modest licensing provisions. Most people prefer it if you don't give them your recycled beer.

      As far as 'legalese' goes, the GPL certainly isn't a painful read, and it's pretty unambiguous in its meaning. I honestly cannot think of any other licensing terms -- or any sort of contract in general -- that is as clearly stated.

      Lastly, you're welcome to ignore the GPL if you want to. You fall back on the regular protections afforded by copyright law, which most people are familiar with. (They may not pay attention, but they understand the concept.) You can have this software, you can use it for free, but you can't then make copies and give them away. Replace 'software' with 'book' in the preceding sentence to see what I mean.

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      ~Idarubicin
  6. I've nominated Per Bothner by joto · · Score: 3, Informative
    The man has been involved in pretty much anything in gcc (as in gnu compiler collection, not just gnu c compiler), gdb, and other parts of the toolchain. He has also written Kawa, and been involved in lot's of other free software projects.

    I'm not sure if he was the one who started cygnus support, but if he is, that is also something that should help him get the prize (where would free software be without cygnus today?).

  7. While we're on the topic of OSS/FS awards... by i_am_nitrogen · · Score: 3, Informative

    Don't forget about Lindows's "Clicky Award..." Think what you will of Lindows, or LindowsOS, or the name "Clicky," but 50 grand donaed to Open Source software projects is 50 grand. Yeah, $50000US. Go forth and nominate!

    Oh, and where it says "we will add you to our mailing database," you can immediately unsubscribe from the Lindows web page.

    --
    A solution to the problem with music today
  8. Re:He already did! - but... by victim · · Score: 5, Funny

    Linus Torvalds has received the award, but the plaque was engraved...
    GNU/Linus Torvalds
    in order to reduce confusion.

  9. Debian Project by Florian · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I couldn't think of a project that has done more for the advancement of free software (in practical terms) than Debian. The years of continuous good work seem to pay off now. While RedHat is popular among corporate customers, Mandrake (and, in Europe: SuSE) among newbie users and people who boot into GNU/Linux only occasionally, it seems as if Debian is becoming the de facto standard distribution of non-corporate advanced users (who typically pick Debian as their second distribution and then stick with it). As a genuinely free distribution, Debian is also much appreciated in education; my university, for example, hosts its own Debian FTP mirror.

    While Debian's Free Software-only politics was controversial some years ago - anyone remember the ugly term "Debian Nazi"? -, it no longer seems so due to DMCA, patenting, and perversions of copyright. Debian has done invaluable work for the Free Software community by thoroughly reviewing the licensing of the software it ships, freeing users from the hassle to become legal experts. Debian users enjoy both the technical excellence and the legal safety of running Debian "main".

    It would be good if the FSF Award were given to Debian to finance work on the new Debian installer. This is the last showstopper piece which prevents massive newbie user adoption of this distribution.

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    gopher://cramer.plaintext.cc http://cramer.plaintext.cc:70
  10. I nominate... by RadioheadKid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Chris "Monty" Montgomery the mastermind behind Ogg Vorbis and cdparanoia.

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    "Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos." -Homer Simpson
  11. How about these guys?!? by tlambert · · Score: 5, Informative

    How about Paul Vixie, for maintaining the comp.sources archives for forever, so that they didn't get lost in the mists of time?

    How about Fred Fish, who pretty much single-handedly invented the compilation distribution disk?

    How about CSRG for BSD UNIX?

    How about Kernighan and Ritchie, for the C language?

    How about DECUS, for the DECUS tapes?

    How about Ward Christensen and Randy Suess, for inventing the modem, and giving the idea away?

    How about Ward Christensen again, for inventing the Xmodem protocol, and giving the software away?

    -- Terry

  12. John Carmack by fault0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've already nominated someone, but anyone want to nominate John Carmack?

    He's released much of id's older under the GPL, most recently Quake2.

    I think he gives a good balance between making money in the commercial sector and releasing code for people to learn and develop from. When a game engine is no longer profitable, he releases it. I think this should serve as a model to other companies to release the code for their old software/abandonware, especially in games.