[Indic-computing-users] RMS to visit India

[Frederick N. <fr...@by...>]

Free Software Foundation founder Richard M Stallman is visiting India this
week. He's to speak at IIIM-B on Nov 2. On Nov 5-7 he visits Goa, and then
is at Delhi. If anyone from this group could meet up with him, it would be
nice. FN

---------- Forwarded message ----------

> "FREE AS IN FREEDOM: RICHARD STALLMAN'S CRUSADE FOR FREE SOFTWARE"
> 
> Sebastopol, CA--Why would Microsoft executives lie awake at night
> worrying about the antics of a long-haired, renegade hacker named
> Richard Stallman? Why do some of the smartest programmers on the
> planet revere this man as "St. Ignucius"? And how did a stubborn,
> precocious boy obsessed with creating the perfect model rocket grow up
> to play David to the software industry's Goliath? A new book, "Free as
> in Freedom," (Sam Williams, O'Reilly, US $22.95) traces Stallman's
> evolution from gifted, solitary child to teen outcast to revered and
> reviled crusader.
> 
> As the leader of the free software movement, Stallman is one of the
> most influential and controversial personalities in hacker culture
> today. Through extensive interviews with Stallman, his family, and
> fellow hackers, author Sam Williams has created an intimate portrait
> of this freedom fighter.
> 
> No one is apathetic about Stallman, the controversial founder of the
> Free Software Foundation (FSF). A brilliant coder, MacArthur "genius
> grant" recipient ...he
> single-handedly launched the movement that threatens to beat Microsoft
> by radically changing the rules of the software game.
> 
> To Stallman, free software--"free as in speech, not beer"--is a moral
> imperative. From the moment he encountered "unfree" printer software
> in 1980, he has dedicated his life to ridding the world of proprietary
> code. Equipped with a messianic zeal, world-class programming chops,
> and a fair measure of geek charisma, he set out to enlist every last
> programmer in his crusade for freedom.
> 
> "Nobody but Richard could have had the patience, and the stubbornness,
> and the will to build something this big," says Williams. "There are
> other people writing free software, but he's the one that made it an
> issue. He's the one that provided the initial gravitation that
> everybody else could gather around."
> 
> This provocative chronicle offers fans and foes alike perspective on
> this inscrutable high-tech Robin Hood--as well as new understanding of
> the issues that promise to shape the future of the software industry.
> 
> "Richard has developed a coherent philosophy that has forced all of us
> to reexamine our ideas of how software is produced, of what
> intellectual property means, and what the software community actually
> represents."--Ed Schonberg, Professor, NYU Computer Science Department
> 
> "Stallman's ideals will define our future--if we are lucky."
> --Lawrence Lessig, Stanford Law School and author of "Code and Other
> Laws of Cyberspace"
> 
> "I think if you want to understand Richard Stallman the human being,
> you really need to see all of the parts as a consistent whole. All
> those personal eccentricities that people see as obstacles to getting
> to know Stallman, really are Stallman: Richard's strong sense of
> personal frustration, his enormous sense of principles, his ethical
> commitment, his inability to compromise, especially on issues he
> considers fundamental. These are all the very reasons Richard did what
> he did when he did."
> --Eben Moglen, Professor of Law, Columbia University Law School and
> legal counsel to The FSF
> 
> "He was special. A clear thinker and a clear designer."
> --Gerald Sussman, MIT faculty member and former A.I. Lab researcher
> 
> "We were all geeks and nerds, but he was unusually poorly adjusted. He
> was also smart as sh*t. I've known a lot of smart people, but I think
> he was the smartest person I've ever known."
> --Dan Chess, Mathematics Professor, Hunter College, and fellow math
> prodigy
> 
> "Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can
> put three man-years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting
> his product, and distributing it for free?"
> --Bill Gates in his "Open Letter to Hobbyists"
> 
> "I saw in Richard the stereotypical hacker type. We don't have much of
> them in Helsinki."
> --Linus Torvalds, seeing Richard for the first time in 1990
> 
> "Richard was the first to take up what is now a very important
> battle...He was an early, lone voice warning of how the concept of
> software intellectual property could undermine, rather than support,
> the programmer."
> --Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web and Director of the
> World Wide Web Consortium
> 
> "Unquestionably one of the great seminal figures of hacker
> culture."
> --Eric Raymond, author of "The Cathedral and the Bazaar"
> 
> "A long overdue book on a fascinating person who, by sheer force of
> character, has changed how the world looks at technology."
> --Bob Young, Co-Founder, Red Hat, Inc.
> 
> "Happy hacking, folks."--Richard M. Stallman
> 
> 
> Additional Resources:
> 
> An interview with the author can be found online at:
> http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2002/02/28/williams.html
> 
> Richard Stallman's personal web site:
> http://www.stallman.org/
> 
> Chapter 3, "A Portrait of the Hacker as a Young Man" is available free
> online at:  http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/freedom/chapter/ch03.html
> 
> For more information about the book, including Table of Contents,
> index, author bio, and samples, see:
> http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/freedom/
> 
> For a cover graphic in jpeg format, go to:
> ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/graphics/book_covers/hi-res/0596002874.jpg
> 
> 
> Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software
> By Sam Williams
> March 2002
> 0-596-00287-4, Order Number: 2874
> 240 pages, $22.95 US $34.95 CA
> or...@or...
> (800) 998-9938
> (707) 827-7000
> http://www.oreilly.com/