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Stallman Goes to India
SureshD writes "The Hindu is reporting on a 40 minute long meeting between Richard Stallman and the Indian President - Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. After the interview, RMS said that the President was 'receptive' to his views that development of software should be seen as a political and social issue and not just from the technological point of view. Interestingly, the article mentions that the President had prepared for the meeting by downloading and reading Stallman's biography (Free as in Freedom) from the Internet."
By Sandeep Dikshit
NEW DELHI, JAN. 31. The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, last Thursday played host to two radically divergent poles of the global software industry.
The first to meet the President was Richard Stallman, the leading light of the free and open source software (FOSS) movement.
Ironically, the people waiting in the Presidential anteroom for the interaction to end were people from Microsoft.
Dr. Stallman has devoted his life to countering Microsoft's policy of selling software that cannot be changed because its code is kept a secret. It also cannot be shared because of licensing restrictions.
Talking to The Hindu, Dr. Stallman said the President was "receptive'' to his views that development of software should be seen as a political and social issue and not just from the technological point of view.
At a meeting that lasted 40 minutes, they discussed the need to give people an alternative way to use computers by popularising open source software (OSS).
"The President said this was a beautiful concept,'' said Dr. Stallman. Mr. Kalam had prepared for the meeting by downloading Dr. Stallman's biography from the Internet which in keeping with the FOSS movement guru's philosophy is available free of cost.
The two also went over several common interests, including the use of software in space programming. For the first time, the Mars Rovers vehicle is using OSS and it is reported to be functioning well.
They also reminisced on the development work on several software programmes in which both had taken interest.
Besides explaining the political philosophy of FOSS movement, Dr. Stallman said he also spoke to the President about the real intention behind Microsoft's plan to spread the use of computers in schools which was "akin to the colonial system of recruiting the local elite to help keep others in line.''
"I hope my discussion had some influence on the President and he will be able to resist being used that way.''
Dr. Stallman gave up a cushy teaching job in a prestigious American university after he perceived that "computer colonisation'' was spreading rapidly.
"There were only two options. Either I stopped using computers or I help everybody to escape. I chose the latter,'' he said.
He explained the concept behind FOSS. The word "free'' did not mean giving the software gratis.
Rather, it denoted the freedom to control the computer because the seller of FOSS also provided the source code or the manner in which a particular software was constructed.
"This way you can see how it works, you can change it and also share the software.''
By taking to FOSS, India would be able to cut down on the outflow of foreign exchange which was going to become very large in the near future.
So far, Microsoft licences were not being forced on individuals, but in the coming days, proprietary software companies would make it impossible for individuals to make copies clandestinely.
"The flood (outflow of foreign exchange) will then become a torrent,'' he said. Free software, in contrast, would encourage local information technology developers to innovate and adapt the software constantly. The result will be that money will circulate in the local economy, he said.
Copyright 2000 - 2003 The Hindu
The Indian President is tech-savvy and has on earlier occasions tried to promote Linux. He was really a rocket scientist before he was appointed the President.
In May 2003, he gave a speech in which he said "said it is 'unfortunate' that proprietary software - such as Windows - is so popular and has called for broader adoption of open source products." More details here - ZDNet UK - News - Indian President adds salt to MS wounds
From the article, notes on a conversation with Bill Gates:
To see a world in a grain of sand, and then to step back and see the beach where the sand lies
Enough of his friends must have yelled at him about it, but over the last 5 years when I've seen RMS, he's almost always had clean hair (or been-on-airplanes-too-long hair), and clean clothes.
Although this is true, it is also to be remembered that the Preisdent of India is highly respected in technical and defence circles. As such, his views and leanings have a lot of bearing on the political decision-making process.
While launching the IIIT in Pune, the President made a pointed reference to his meeting with Mr. Gates, and made some brilliant points in exhorting the local IT community to further the cause of Free and Open Source software.
India is indeed fortunate to have such an eminently qualified person at the apex seat, since IT is synonymous with national security these days....
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If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Dr.Kalam's website at http://presidentofindia.nic.in/ , runs on Linux and Apache . Undoubtedly one of the most qualified persons for the job, he headed India's defence research body, the DRDO and was one of the key members of the team planning and implementing India's second round of nuclear tests in 1998 (India tested its first nuclear device in 1974).
Also a bachelor like India's executive head,the Prime Minister.
Stallman basically told the the president of India that they could have and distribute programmers for free, rather than have to pay for some evil, greedy programmers who won't even show you their goods. Stallman's programmers come from all around the world and are completely open. His only requirement is that the terms of their release and distribution be kept in their chest pocket, and that the president give them credit if he modifies them in any way.
Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
In 2001 he received a second honorary doctorate, from the University of Glasgow
India's tech is booming
The U.S. still imports way more jobs than it imports, and India's tech is booming based solely on the fact that it is low cost. Try reading some alternative viewpoints on the outsourcing subject.
Japan has all the cutting edge electronics and techonologies
And those Japanese companies also create a lot of jobs in the U.S., and the Japanese economy isn't doing so hot. Your point?
China is destined to be the next super power
With no economic freedom and the vast majority of it's citizens living in horrid poverty, I doubt it.
Korea is trying to get nukes
NORTH Korea already has them.
The USA has mad cow disease, a puppet for a president, a huge debt, a slow economy and we're spending billions more on rebuilding a country that we destroyed while looking for weapons that didn't exist.
Slow economy? I'm seeing growth right now, what are you talking about? It was slow a year ago, times are changing... mad cow disease gets a big "so what" from me, it's more paranoia than reality, it does more damage to the beef industry than the general population. And a puppet for a President? Watch this "puppet" obliterate John Kerry in the next election.
It's really lame his editorializing was so lacking in any substance, and yet modded up as insightful.
No. Dikshit, or Dixit, is a popular surname up in the north. The surname particularly shot to prominence because of Madhuri Dixit, a popular Hindi film actress in the late 80's and 90's.
More than mere navel gazing.
(Offtopic)e sidentofindia.nic.in) President's website was running MS windows sometime back. Now that runs on Linux.
According to netcraft (http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?host=www.pr
Good work.
The article refers to "Dr. Stallman" and his leaving a "cushy teaching job". Stallman's own bio at stallman.org points out that he only has a BA in physics, and he was a staff programmer at MIT, not an professor.