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rms – The Free Software Movement

23/06/2012 @ 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm

The Leicester Linux Users Group have organised a talk by none other than Dr Richard M Stallman to be held at 1:30pm on Saturday 23rd of June at De Montfort University, Leicester:

 

The Free Software Movement

The Free Software Movement campaigns for computer users’ freedom to cooperate and control their own computing. The Free Software Movement developed the GNU operating system, typically used together with the kernel Linux, specifically to make these freedoms possible.

 

All Welcome

The event is about freedom, and is also free as in “[free] beer” (no cost).

Also, Nottingham LUG and anyone else interested are invited to join Leicester LUG for beers afterwards. Meanwhile in true rms style, this is very much a flying visit as he continues his continuously hectic schedule onwards.

Guaranteed to be interesting and thoughtful, and all too brief for the significance of the subject. Likely controversial also 😉

For any further details, please contact the Leicester LUG organizer for the event. (Room number to be sign-posted at Hawthorn Building entrance.)

 
 
 

Aside:

The lowercase “rms” for his initials harks back to the very early days when there were very few computer users and so you often had a computer user login name that was just your initials, and usually all lower case from those days of big mechanical teletype machines that were single-case, or just too darn irksome to bother shifting case. Another very famous set of lowercase initials from the early days who unfortunately has recently forever “logged off” was dmr.

 

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Details

Date:
23/06/2012
Time:
1:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Event Category:

Venue

Hawthorn Building
De Montfort University
Leicester, LE1 9BH United Kingdom + Google Map

Organizer

Gareth Lapworth, Leicester Linux User Group

7 comments to rms – The Free Software Movement

  • Martin L
    06/06/2012 at 3:18 pm

    For his visit to Nottingham last year, Dr Stallman stirred much debate. A brief summary of just part of that debate can be glimpsed from our group’s follow-on meetings:

    What has FLOSS done for us?!

    The Attraction of Contributors in FLOSS

     

    Not to be missed!

    Cheers,
    Martin

  • Martin L
    12/06/2012 at 8:03 pm

    I hope this doesn’t spoil the party schedule for everyone 🙁

    Thief open-sources Richard Stallman’s laptop, passport, visa

    … his prized laptop, wallet and passport were nicked at a conference in Argentina.

    The snatch happened as fans of the Emacs author shouted over each other in an attempt to talk to him after he gave a talk at the University of Buenos Aires on Friday…

    … Stallman’s laptop will be even harder to replace than his passport and visa: it’s a Leemote Yeeloong, which runs free software from the BIOS up and is one of the rare bits of hardware compatible with his hardline stance on software freedom…

    Here’s hoping that bureaucracy doesn’t next contrive to spoil the show…

  • Martin L
    13/06/2012 at 2:22 pm

    Despite the upset, checking with the organizer Gareth “things are good to go”:

    … things are back on track. He has a new passport and someone has lent him a laptop, things are still good to go.

    Guaranteed to be good! 🙂

  • Martin L
    19/06/2012 at 1:42 pm

    Further note from Gareth:

    “The talk is open to the general public, so please feel free to turn up. The DMU car park is available to visitors on the day, and there should be plenty of space available.”

  • Martin L
    22/06/2012 at 7:07 pm

    For anyone contemplating using the train on Sat for the rms talk, from “National Rail Enquires”:

    Service Update

    CANCELLED: Proposed industrial action to affect East Midlands Trains services on Saturday 23 and Monday 25 June

    HOWEVER, do a few clicks and read on:

    Following talks between the ASLEF Union and East Midlands Trains, the Industrial action which had been proposed to take place on Saturday 23 June and Monday 25 June has now been cancelled.

    East Midlands Trains will run their normal timetable on these dates (subject to engineering work on Saturday between Kettering and Leicester), details of which are available…

    So… THE TRAINS SHOULD BE RUNNING AS ‘NORMAL’.

    Would you believe it?

    I wonder how much lost business there is from the farce, and the bad “Cancelled” postings from that site?… There’s the rather stupid ambiguity there as to whether it is the service that is cancelled, or whether the service cancellations have been cancelled… Or is it just the notice that is cancelled rather than the trains?… Plain stupidity or constructive stupidity?…

    That’s no way to run a railway!

  • Martin L
    02/07/2012 at 12:59 pm

    OK, so in true “Open Source” style, I tried a fix with some positive feedback with the suggestion to “re-word the notices to not use ‘cancelled’ and instead to focus on the trains service rather than the notices themselves”… After all, it was not the trains that were cancelled.

    I received an overly polite and long winded response with the key paragraph:

    I understand you feel that the way the information displayed on our website regarding disruption on route might be misleading. Therefore, I will therefore ensure that your correspondence is logged for the attention of the relevant department. While we cannot promise to incorporate all suggestions we receive, I assure you that we do ensure all feedback is given full consideration.

    Very polite, but of any effect?…

  • Martin L
    02/07/2012 at 1:01 pm

    As ever, a good talk by rms and food for thought. See rms @ DMU.

    Also, a move for action?

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