{"id":2745,"date":"2010-10-19T23:27:10","date_gmt":"2010-10-19T15:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/librariansmatter.com\/blog\/?p=2745"},"modified":"2010-10-19T23:27:10","modified_gmt":"2010-10-19T15:27:10","slug":"menagerie-angry-bird-a-gnu-and-a-snail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/librariansmatter.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/19\/menagerie-angry-bird-a-gnu-and-a-snail\/","title":{"rendered":"Menagerie: angry bird, a Gnu and a snail"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m just back from a great night out, and found this waiting for me when I returned home:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s from my friend and craftbrarian, Jo Beazley<\/a>, in Queensland. Thank you!<\/p>\n

I enjoyed a night of chilli tofu and chat with fellow librarian bloggers, Con<\/a> and snail<\/a> … as well as our friend Gaby and Con’s husband, Mike.<\/p>\n

Gaby and Con had been to an ALIA event where six workers in academic libraries talked about what their jobs involved. I was all ready to go to the event too…but all week my head was buried in trying to find images of MIT hackers and reading about free software in preparation for a presentation in a couple of weeks… so I almost missed the fact that Richard Stallman<\/a> was talking at the same time. Almost, but thankfully not quite.<\/p>\n

Mike, snail and I could not quite agree whether Richard Stallman<\/a> was an icon or a guru of the Free Software movement. He wrote the GNU operating system which is an integral part of Linux distributions. He would prefer it to be termed GNU\/Linux. He decided in 1983 that he would write a free software version of an operating system or die trying (of old age). Without a free operating system computer users would never be free of proprietary software for their computing.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/dt>\n
Stallman suited up as “St IGNUtius” in his “Church of Emacs” skit… as performed in Perth tonight.<\/dd>\n
http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:RMS_iGNUcius_techfest_iitb.JPG<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Stallman’s basic argument is that software created by users that can be shared in a community is democratic and that proprietary software is not. This is Free software as in freedom, not as in without cost. He differentiates between Open Source software, which is a term that focuses on technical convenience and Free Software which he sees as a human rights issue. \u00a0He argues that software should fit the four freedoms:<\/p>\n