RMS cleared doubts!

Until I live the day 18th Friday 2007, I had two big doubts about FOSS culture. I read a lot, I play hell a lot around this massive net but I never had the chance to clear out those doubts.Maybe I was too lazy to go in search of the answer or it’s just the way it supposed to be. However there were lots of murmurs among geeks & I stumbled upon a few.

However there are no doubts anymore. RMS, the best possible character cleared “ALL” out at SLIIT auditorium. What is that ALL? For me,there were only too. “What is Open source initiative? & what is Free software foundation?” & the second one is “Why should I call it GNU/Linux”.

Out of those two there is one I worry a lot about. It’s the first one. Few moons or few dozens of moons back I came across two web sites. fsf.org & opensource.org. I just hovered on both sites & for devils sake I said “Oh this OSI thing might be the official site of FOSS community” & damn I created a banner out of it’s logo & put it on my sidebar. See the banner below & please don’t call me “You fool”. And the next best…sorry…worst thing is that I thought FSF is something I shouldn’t care much about.

Once I saw Buds Twitter saying “Registered on FSF for some free software love” I thought “Damn what the hell is this guy is doing?” & never asked him about it. This situation made me ask RMS about it & clear the doubt. So I wrote to him at the Question & Answers round of the event.

Me: Do you have any connection with Open Source Initiative?
RMS: No. I stand for Free software.
Me: Is it OK to use nano ;) (It was a joke & RMS understood me :) )
RMS: It’s a GNU software.It’s OK to use nano but I think Emacs is better than nano [everyone laughed & that's what I wanted to.]

Hope it’s clear that OSI have no business with FOSS culture. I regret my mistake. “I’m extremely sorry dear FOSS people”.

The second thing which I do not have to worry is “Why should I call it GNU/Linux”?. I also believed that calling it just Linux is damn OK & command line warrior still believes so. However once I read an article somewhere saying “GNU is a big part of GNU/Linux so please free to mention GNU.GNU deserves it”. I’m happy that I understood it & felt free to mention GNU especially on blog posts which are globally available for reading.

RMS said that it’s crucial calling it GNU/Linux because people are forgetting freedom & running behind ease & eye candy. Just calling it GNU/Linux is the easiest possible way to lead people to think of freedom of software.

This problem has two aspects of it. If you are a geek who know the concept behind software freedom & you are alone in a room with a geek girl who also know well about software freedom or vice versa, it’s OK calling it just Linux (You guys somehow manage to make it a geeky conversation ;) ). But think some one is listening to you stealthily & he don’t know about software freedom. Now this is a problem. I hope you can understand me.

If you are blogging or talking to a crowd or just chit chat with a bunch of non geek friends You MUST call it GNU/Linux. (I don’t want to call it Gnu-Slash-Linux & waste time.I call it Gnu Linux).

So no doubts anymore.

SLIIT made a great event with RMS

Still couldn’t rescue myself from the accelerated heart beat caused by RMS event at SLIIT & RMS-Geek event at UCSC rooftop.I’m proud to be a part of Sri Lankas most crowded ICT event (According to ICTA guy.) & also to remind & rejoice the moment I stood next to RMS.It was almost a dream to me if I speak (or rather type) HONESTLY.And also I’d like to congratulate & thank the SLIIT guys Amila,Waruna & all the other SLIIT FOSS club members for making it that much cool(Well the A/C was little bit high ;) ).

Bud(Mr.Buddhika Siddhisena) was Twittering all the main happenings & me
& seejay joined him too.I Twittered about Buds talk which ran just few minutes due to RMSs presence at the event.However I wish if bud had the chance to continue his talk because it was crucial in attracting newcomers in to FOSS or GNU/Linux world.

It was an event full of fun which everyone was in cool minds & I admit that it’s the nature of Geek life. Sense of humor is always present in Geek life. RMS proved it very much at the event.Ven. Metta joined him & surprisingly SLIIT Chairman & President Prof.Sam Karunarathne joined him too(You took the event down to 0C sir :) ) It was not a serious tied by tie event at all.I hope every one had the sense of freedom there.

Had chance to talk to all old “Software Freedom Day Buddies” at the event but missed few APIIT guys & NAZLY. And surprisingly Laktek, a good old blogging friend came & talk to me & Seeajay. We asked him “how did you manage to lense us?” & he said that ” Firefox T-shirts did the job”. It’s not that easy to find 2-3 pictures of myself on the net so laktek was clever enough to bypass my anonymity efforts.

The evening was also cool & serene. We (A bunch of Lankan geeks) met RMS there & he presented almost everyone with a joke & a hand shake. Then he left to get on the birdy-machine. Couldn’t have long geeky chats with others because me & seejay had to leave early. This is not the end of the story because those memories are going to stay in my heart forever.

PS: I was looking for Nazly at the event & got to know Nazly was in kandy as his grand ma passed away. Ven.Metta wanted me to share sympathies with him & I Twittered on behalf of all geeks.