Who Are We?

The Hampshire GNU+Linux Users Group exists to both educate others about and promote the use of Free/Libre Software and operating systems. As such, the GLUG takes a two-pronged approach at helping humanity attain complete liberation from unnecessary technological restrictions: firstly to raise our neighbour's awareness of the concept of Free Software and viable Free alternatives to common non-free solutions, and secondly to actively install, teach, and support a wide variety of powerful Freely licensed applications. The group is open to students, staff, and faculty in all five colleges, and encourages education, active participation in, and support of Freely licensed software projects.

What do you mean by 'Free' Software?

In the English language, the word 'free' has a definite ambiguity to it which does not exist in other languages. The word can mean free as in no cost (also known as 'free as in beer'), or perhaps free as in liberty ('free as in speech'). In other Western languages, these concepts are separated linguistically with variants on 'libre' for free as in speech, and 'gratis' for free as in beer.

The 'Free' in Free Software absolutely means Free as in speech, not as in beer. Free Software gives you four essential freedoms that every computer user should have in order to maintain a balanced and liberated society. You can certainly charge for Free Software, and make a profit off of your work: there are many commercial companies whose sole business model is licensing copies of and selling support for 100% Free Software. For this reason, refrain from using the term "Commercial Software" in reference to non-free software: the fact that a piece of software gives you the freedoms you deserve does not imply it is not involved in a commercial endeavour.

What are the Four Freedoms?

In order to be Free Software, an application or operating system must grant end users of computers (that's you and me) a base level of essential and deserved freedoms. Without these essential Four Freedoms, control of your own data, the programs you run, and even your entire computer itself is not your own. Without these freedoms, the activities and actions of your own computer are at the sole discretion of others, oftentimes American corporations whose motives are beholden by law to increase the wealth of their public owners, and certainly not the users of their software.

The Four Freedoms are:

Although Freedom 0, the freedom to run the program, seems to be quite obvious, there are many non-free programs that explicitly deny even this essential freedom. Software is neither Free nor helpful to humanity if the terms of its license restrict the exercising of these Four Freedoms.

What is 'Source Code'?

Source Code is what computer programmers write in order to create software. It is written in one of many different programming languages, such as C, C++, Java, Lisp, or Perl. The problem arises when we realise that computers speak only in 1's and 0's, not in programming language code. Source code is solely for humans to understand and process: computers can't read it!

In order to get a computer to run an application that a programmer has written, source code must be converted into what's called a binary executable, binary for the 1's and 0's your computer understands, and executable because you execute, or run it. You have many binary executables on your computer, in fact you are running the binary executable of your web browser to view this page right now! The process of turning source code into a binary executable is called compilation.

Access to the source code of an application or operating system is a must in order to fulfil the Four Freedoms. Much like computers cannot understand source code, we humans cannot make sense of a binary executable or how it works. Therefore, in order to fulfil Freedom 1 (the freedom to study how it works), we must have access to the source code to understand what the application is even doing when we run the binary executable. Also, in order to change an application's behavior to suite our needs (Freedom 3), we must have the source code because binary executables are not editable by humans once they are compiled.

What is Proprietary (non-free) Software?

On a simple level, proprietary or non-free software is any piece of software which denies any combination of the Four Freedoms. Most often, proprietary software denies you access to the source code and forbids you to help your neighbour. Additionally, many proprietary applications do not let you run the program unless you give a certain amount of money or personal information to whoever does hold the source code.

The problem with proprietary software which is unique to software over any other medium of human expression (film, music, literature, still art, etc.) is the abstraction between source code and binary executables. While you may be able to compile source code in order to run it as a binary executable, you cannot perform the process in reverse. Because of this, when you receive a copy of a proprietary application or operating system, you are given only the binary executable which could contain any number of malicious instructions or perform activities you disapprove of when run. The problem is that you or anyone else do not have the freedom to find out!

In the instance when a proprietary application forbids helping others by distributing copies, it is more moral to help your neighbour by giving them a copy to run instead of financially supporting those who would so willingly strip you of your essential freedoms. However it is the best solution of all, and indeed part of the mission of the Hampshire GLUG, to recommend Free Software alternatives which are often superior in quality to their non-free counterparts.

But... but... what about Money??

The whole point of Free Software is that you have the freedoms to do things that are otherwise impossible and/or illegal with proprietary software. Free Software never gives you less freedoms than proprietary software, and this includes the freedom to sell it! It is absolutely not antithetical to the goals of Free Software to profit from your work: remember, it's Free as in Freedom, not as in beer!

There are many large corporations around the world whose sole source of revenue comes from licensing and supporting Free Software projects or operating systems. Examples of major names with a heavy involvement in Free Software:

With Free Software, you are even free to sell and support other people's software! If you do a better job in selling it, or offer incentives the original creators do not, then you will get more customers, simple as that. Free Software doesn't leverage technological restrictions in order to maintain an artificial monopoly over a particular product in the marketplace: it encourages innovation and allows for a free flow of ideas and business opportunities in order to benefit us all.

How does 'Open Source' fit in?

Open Source is a separate movement that largely overlaps with the Free Software Movement, but has ideologically disparate origins and a contrasting overall focus. The Free Software Movement was started in 1983, and as such it is responsible for bringing us the GNU operating system, the Linux kernel, plus the entire philosophical framework that has allowed the community to grow and thrive so quickly. The General Public License and copyleft are born from the Free Software Movement, and as such it is responsible for all innovation relating to ensuring Free Software stays Free in this age of ever more restrictive copyright law.

The term 'open source' was coined in 1998 to give a new name to the Free Software Movement, which had already existed for 15 years prior. It was felt by some that the name "Free Software" was ambiguous in the English language, and that it would scare off corporate users who didn't know any better. The problem with the term 'open source' is that it only transforms the issue over whether software is Open Source or not into a practical question, instead of an ethical one. So many in the Open Source movement are so deeply rooted in pragmatism that they would advocate using non-free solutions if they are technologically superior. For the Free Software Movement, however, proprietary software is a social problem that needs to be cured with Free Software.

The Hampshire GLUG fully supports and condones the ideologies behind the Free Software Movement and, as stated in the mission statement, seeks absolute liberation from the shackles of proprietary software from all corners of the Hampshire College campus. Using the term 'open source' is specifically discouraged because of the blatant detraction of importance from the core of our goals and purpose.

What is a 'License'?

All software is distributed under a set of terms and conditions created by whomever holds the copyright on the source code. On most proprietary applications or operating systems, you've likely clicked that fateful "I Agree" button when that box of rambling legalese popped up. That was the license for the software you used, and most likely you gave up a large amount of your freedoms by agreeing to them. Most developers of proprietary applications create their own license forbidding you from carrying out Freedoms 1, 2 and 3, and sometimes even Freedom 0 to some extent. None of these licenses are acceptable for a Free Software project to use.

Instead of forcing you to agree to throw away the freedoms you need in order to maintain control of your computer and data, Free Software takes a different approach: you don't have to agree to anything in order to use the program! You are simply free to do so. No more clicking "I Agree", no more 'borrowing' serial numbers in order to use the application, no more hidden source code! A Free Software license, as approved by the Free Software Foundation, by definition simply lets you run, copy, access the source code, and modify it. The only restriction to speak of is if the Free Software license in question is a copyleft license, then you must also liberate your modifications should you choose to distribute them.

What is Copyleft?

Copyleft needs to be understood in order to come to grips with the social and historical need for not only Free Software, but Freely licensed works in all mediums of culture. Multinational media conglomerates have incessantly lobbied United States Congress to create and pass laws continuously extending the scope and length of copyright terms. With copyright getting ominously more invasive on the public domain in order to yield gross profits for few, the freedoms of the many to study, make use of, and modify cultural works are being tossed by the wayside.

Seeking practical change by reinvention of the system, a man called Richard M. Stallman founded the Free Software Movement and the GNU operating system in 1983. In order to create Free Software, he needed a Free Software license for his code. He then wrote the General Public License, or GPL, inventing the concept of copyleft thereby changing the face of technology forever and planting the seed for a radical redefinition of the socially responsible method to distribute works of culture. The GPL not only guarantees the Four Freedoms, but with respect to Freedom 3, if you modify the source code and redistribute your changes, those must also be released under the GPL. If they are not, you are violating the original author's (the one whose code you modified) copyrights.

This simple but genius idea therefore uses copyright law in order to enforce the ideological opposite of vanilla copyright: mandatory sharing and perpetual freedom for all. Anyone can copy GPLed software code and use it in their projects, as long as the resulting work is also GPLed if distributed to others. This ensures a perpetual environment of freedom surrounding the project that encourages people from all over the world to come together and work on something they know will remain Free. This idea might sound radical, but it works: despite the availability of many different Free Software licenses, the clear majority of Free Software projects use the GPL as their license. It's worth noting that copyleft licenses are not limited to software: any work consisting of words, sounds, images, video, etc. can be copylefted. In fact, all original content on Wikipedia is released under a copyleft license.

Okay this sounds intruiging... now what?

Contact the GLUG to try out the most common, well-supported, technologicially advanced, easy to use, safe, secure, and powerful Free operating system: GNU+Linux! If you are currently running Windows or Mac OS X and are unsure about switching, fear not! You can try GNU+Linux on your computer without changing one thing on your hard drive. It's extremely easy to boot up into GNU+Linux from what's called a Live CD and try out the operating system directly from the CD, and if you like it you can install from there!

If you are still wary of switching operating systems, the Free Software community has ported a plethora of Freely licensed applications over to proprietary operating systems such as Windows and Mac OS X. Check our list of recommended applications in order to find powerful Freely licensed software to replace or supplement proprietary solutions. The more Free software such as Firefox or OpenOffice.org you use, the easier it will be to switch to GNU+Linux at a later date!