[Fsfe-uk] Why FS is a Good Thing: Draft 4

[Ramin Nakisa]

I've taken out the spurious reference to patents.  The introduction to the 
list of software is now taken out of the list, and I've incorporated the 
suggestion of listing the example programs by category.  I've removed the 
definition of GNU because I appreciate that only nerds like me would think 
that recursive acronyms are amusing, and our target audience includes 
non-nerds.  As Nessie suggested, I included the acronym AFFS.  The reason why 
the Four Freedoms aren't an enumerated list (tried this originally) was that 
it takes up too much space, and I feel the ideas flow well when presented in 
this way as one Freedom leads into another.  On the GNU/Linux issue, I think 
the majority feeling is that for this introductory article we should keep it 
simple.  The baby's woken up, got to go...

\documentclass{article}
\pagestyle{empty}

\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 in 1984, exists to write and support
  Free Software through it's spearhead project known as GNU, which is
  a collection of programs for a Unix-like operating system, and a
  software licence known as the GNU General Public Licence (GPL).
  
  Free Software such as that distributed 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.
  
  The Association for Free Software (AFFS) supports the use of Free
  Software because:

\begin{itemize}
  
\item Most software is written in-house and never sold, and in this
  case using Free Software, improving it, and sharing the improvements
  with others makes financial sense.  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 typically
  saves 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, web forums 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.
  
\end{itemize}

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 [Office application] OpenOffice is a word-processing, email,
  spreadsheet and presentation package that is compatible and visually
  similar to Microsoft Office.
\item [Internet browser] Mozilla, Galeon, Konqueror or Nautilus.
\item [Utility programmes] GNU provides the bulk of these.
\item [Desktop applications] KDE, Gnome, GNUstep, and XFCE offer a
  selection of attractive and easy to use graphical interfaces.
\item [Web site application] Apache is industry standard software used
  to run 57\% of the World's web sites.
\item [Operating system kernel] Linux.
\end{description}

\end{small}
\end{document}