Free & OpenSource Software Weekend

FOSDEM Team writes "This week-end, the fourth edition of the FOSDEM (Free and Opensource Software Developers' European Meeting) is taking place in Brussels, Belgium. Once more, famous speakers will be present for this 2 days event to talk in the different tracks presented (Linux Kernel, Accessibility, Desktop, Java, Scripting languages and Security); on Saturday evening, the FS Award ceremony will be conducted by Richard Stallman. This year, the introduction talk will be made by Tim O'Reilly and the end talk by Jon Maddog Hall. Don't miss the interviews made by the FOSDEM guys : Hans Reiser, Ian Formanek, Keith Packard, Tim O'Reilly, Robert Love and many others."

Comments

Free Software is so mainstream

[ObviousGuy]

The Free Software movement has gotten so large and so mainstream that I would think that conferences like this that highlight the 'separateness' of Free Software would eventually wither away. As more businesses pick up Free Software, the movement would become more prominent at true software conferences that cover the entire industry.

Free Software is not a product, but its products are products. Apache, Linux, Perl, these are all products and have a place to stand among commercial products like IIS, Windows, and Visual Studio.Net. Free Software, OTOH, only describes a group of software that really has nothing in common with each other except that they share a common license.

I would rather see the Apache booth at COMDEX and SD than at FOSDEM. The earlier we can throw the yoke of 'Free Software' from our backs, the earlier Free Software will fulfill its mission.

Re:Free Software is so mainstream

[homeobocks]

Well, they are using the clients of those protocols. The standards of the protocols are open, but you can't d/l the source of some of the most popular /clients/. Examples: Kazaa, mIRC.

Re:Free Software is so mainstream

[00420]

Right now, yes, it is a foreign concept for many people.

As the popularity of OSS continues to grow however, this will change.

I predict that in ten years companies will be like "We don't have access to the source code? How will we know if it's secure?"

Re:But....

[Mr2cents]

Sure, but are there any good ones? :-P. There's no lack of bars in Brussels. Plus, it's only a few hendred metres from the ULB site, afterwards you can get to the hotel by taxi. And you'll need to, I've never left l'atelier totally sober, be warned!

Software freedom still matters.

[jbn-o]

I would rather see the Apache booth at COMDEX and SD than at FOSDEM. The earlier we can throw the yoke of 'Free Software' from our backs, the earlier Free Software will fulfill its mission.

Software freedom is not something that chains you or in any way enslaves you. It is, as the name says, something that gives you freedom--freedoms you don't get with the other software you named. Even by the metric of mere popularity, Apache has apparently done quite well without booths at COMDEX and the like (Apache is still the most popular web server in use). But Apache is one of the outliers--most free software is not as popular in its field as Apache is in its field. I think we are better served by conveying how non-free software (not "commercial" software) restricts your freedoms to share and modify. There is nothing to gain by conflating the two definitions of "free" (except, perhaps, to point out how other languages don't have the problem English does because other languages separate freedom and price by using two different words). We gain more when we talk about software freedom and insist upon it. Insisting on software freedom has gotten us very far in the past 20 years. You don't gain success in a movement by throwing away the principles that the movement stands for.