Computers
I've loved them since I've been able to afford to have my own
back in the beginning of the modern computer era,
the 1980s.
And I've owned a large number of different kinds of computer
and I've expressed, publicly, loyalty to this kind or that kind.
But recently my mind has turned, as many people's have, to this whole business of Free Software.
There is a lot of confusion about what this means
and I'd like to help clear it up
because this happens to be a year of celebration,
and I want to help us all celebrate it
and to look forward to the future of Free Software.
If you have
plumbing in your house
it may be that you don't understand it,
but you may have a friend that does
and they may suggest you move a pipe here, a stopcock there,
or a valve somewhere else.
And you're not breaking the law by doing that, are you?
Because it's your house and you own the plumbing.
You can't do that with your computer.
You can't actually fiddle with your operating system,
and you certainly can't share any ideas you have about your operating system with other people
because Apple and Microsoft, who run the two most popular operating systems
are very firm about that fact that they own that
and no one else can have anything to do with it.
Now this may seem natural to you:
"Why shouldn't they?"
But actually, Why can't you do what you like?
And why can't the community alter, improve, and share?
That's how science works, after all...
All knowledge is free,
and all knowledge is shared in good science.
If it isn't -- it's bad science
and it's a kind of tyranny.
And this is, really, where it all started
A man called Richard Stallman
decided 25 years ago, almost to this very day, to
write a whole new operating system from the ground up.
He called this system GNU which stands for "GNU is Not Unix"
because it isn't Unix,
it is similar to Unix in many ways,
but every element of it, every module, every little section of the code
(and it's a gigantic code because it's to run on many platforms)
is run by the community, run by coders "out there"
who are welcomed in to the GNU community, to help improve the software.
Every "distro", as they are called, every distribution of GNU
is tested, worked upon, and refined
by people whose only interest is creating the perfect operating system
that can be used across the spectrum of platforms and by as many users as possible.
Now, there came a time when the kernel, which is the central part of an operating system, needed to be written.
And a man called Linus Torvalds, of whom you may have heard,
wrote the kernel and it was named after his name,
Linux (line-ucks)
or Linux (Lin-ucks) as some people pronounce it.
And Linux is the kernel that runs within GNU
and I'm here
simply to remind you that GNU and Linux are the twin pillars of the Free Software community,
people who believe, and this is the important part,
that software should be Free,
that the community of users should be allowed to adapt it,
adopt it, change it, to improve it, and to spread those improvements around,
like science.
That's basically what it is saying.
In the same way that good scientists share everything and all knowledge is open and free
so it should be with an operating system.
So, if you're a supporter of GNU,
if you're a support of Linux, and the Free Software Foundation,
you are probably wondering "Well what can I do?"
The most obvious thing you can do is use a GNU/Linux operating system on your own computer.
It's much easier than you might think.
Go to the website "gnu.org" and see if you can find an operating system that suits you.
Probably, if you like a good graphical user-interface,
something like g-New-Sense, gNewSense
You'll see it there on gnu.org.
Or, if you're a really smart cookie,
you might want to do your own coding.
You might want to contribute to the sum of knowledge
that makes GNU and Linux what they are.
Either way,
I hope you will join me
in wishing GNU a very happy twenty-fifth birthday.
Lets do that now, actually...
Happy birthday, GNU!
Twenty-five years old.
The operating system of the future.
Freedom!
Chocolaty good.
The tastiest operating system in the world...
and it's all free.
Captions: Gregory Maxwell