Re: [Fsfe-uk] Why FS is a Good Thing

[Ramin Nakisa]

According to more good suggestions:

- The list of projects has been altered to include those typically found in a 
  distro, and which people are most likely to recognize and use.
- Beowulf goes... sniff.
- There's now a sentence introducing GNU, RMS and FSF.
- I've caved in on GNU/Linux, since this is for newbies.

\documentclass{article}
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\begin{document}

\begin{small}
  
  Science owes its explosive growth over the past century to the free
  and open exchange of ideas.  As Isaac Newton said in a letter to his
  colleague Robert Hooke dated 5 February 1676, ``If I have seen
  further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.''  Free
  Software is in the process of recreating this explosion of ideas in
  the world of Information Technology.  The Free Software Foundation,
  founded by Richard Stallman, exists to write and support Free
  Software through it's spearhead project known as GNU (GNU's Not
  Unix) which is a collection of programs for a Unix-like operating
  system, and a software license known as the GNU General Public
  Licence (GPL).
  
  Free Software such as that distributed under the GPL ensures that
  people are free to make improvements and redistribute software, but
  must always make the source code available.  Any software released
  under the GPL ensures four freedoms: (i) the freedom to run the
  program, for any purpose, (ii) the freedom to study how the program
  works, and adapt it to your needs, (iii) the freedom to redistribute
  copies so you can help others and (iv) the freedom to improve the
  program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the
  whole community benefits.

\begin{itemize}
  
\item Most software is written in-house and never sold, and in this
  case software patents are a hindrance.  Free Software is not a
  commodity, it is more like infrastructure - freely available to all
  businesses and an enabler of progress and innovation.
  
\item Free Software is often distributed for no cost.  This can save
  around 20\% of the cost of every computer in an organisation,
  because although hardware has become consistently cheaper personal
  computer operating systems have increased in price.
  
\item Free Software is bankruptcy-proof.  It is usually stored on
  globally available software repositories and will outlive any
  company or organisation that created it.  While the community of
  people that use and maintain the project continue to exist, the
  software will persist and develop.
  
\item Support for Free Software is often much better than support for
  proprietary software.  Mailing lists, bulletin boards and newsgroups
  exist where users post questions and receive prompt and helpful
  replies.  People are encouraged to report bugs and these are quickly
  fixed.
  
\item Many companies have invested heavily in Free Software.  IBM has
  invested over \$1 billion in Linux, and now sells many of its
  computers, ranging from laptops to million-pound mainframes, with Linux
  pre-installed.
  
\item Thousands of Free Software projects exist (see the Free Software
  directory at http://www.gnu.org/directory/).  A typical installation
  of Linux that you would buy or download from the Internet for your
  personal computer would include:

\begin{description}
\item [GNU] which provides the bulk of basic utility programs.
\item [KDE, Gnome, GNUstep and XFCE] a selection of desktop
  environments with attractive and easy to use graphical interfaces.
\item [OpenOffice] a word-processing, email, spreadsheet and
  presentation package that is compatible and visually similar to
  Microsoft Office.
\item [Mozilla] is an Internet browser.
\item [Apache] industry standard software used to run 57\% of web
  sites world-wide.
\item [Linux] is the operating system kernel, so called because it is
  central to its operation.
\end{description}

\end{itemize}

\end{small}
\end{document}