Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Stephen Fry Helps GNU Celebrate 25th Birthday

Posted by timothy on from the even-at-double-the-price dept.

Virgil Tibbs writes "The GNU operating system is turning 25 this year, and the Free Software Foundation has kicked off its month-long celebration of the anniversary by releasing 'Happy Birthday to GNU,' a short film featuring the English humorist, actor, novelist and filmmaker Stephen Fry. In the five-minute film, Fry compares the free software operating system to 'good science' and contrasts it with the 'kind of tyranny' imposed by the proprietary software produced by companies like Microsoft and Apple that it replaces. He encourages people to use free GNU/Linux distributions like gNewSense and free software generally, for freedom's sake."

4 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. The party will be Wilder than the Oscars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Make mine a stiff one Stephen.

  2. Re:gNewSense is 25 years old??!? by Macthorpe · · Score: 4, Funny

    Absolutely. It's been 25 years since Richard Stallman wrote down that he was going to make a "GNU operating system", and he still hasn't made one.

    My birthday isn't based on when my mother wrote to my father telling her she was going to go off and get pregnant by a cab driver called Terry.

    --
    "It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
  3. Re:gnu site is slow by Hal_Porter · · Score: 4, Funny

    The proper name is Gnu/Tube since it is using Gnu content.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  4. Re:Most disappointing. by jez9999 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I loved the fact that they actually described that GNU meant 'GNU is Not UNIX'. Stephen Fry goes on to say that 'it's a bit like Unix, but not quite'. The Windows user is sitting there asking, what the fuck is Unix?

    Oh, and Alan Davies would recommend compiling Slackware with no help from the community as a good way to get started.

    --
    == Jez ==
    Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.