Free Software User Group

Free Software User Group - Kozhikode

[Image of the Head of a GNU -- GNU's Not Unix!]

Welcome to the website of "Free Software User Group - Kozhikode"

What is Free Software
What is GNU/Linux

What is our purpose
Why we're not a GNU/Linux User Group

What is Free Software

Free software is a matter of freedom, not cost. It is a matter of liberty, not price. The word `free' in free software has a similar meaning as in free speech, free people and free country and should not be confused with its other meaning associated with zero-cost or low-cost. Think of free software as software which is free of encumbrances, not necessarily free of cost.

In the beginning, all software was free. However, some software businesses concluded that they could maximize profits and gain a so-called competitive advantage by restricting the freedoms of their software customers. So they decided to take away their customers' freedom to share, freedom to help themselves and freedom to help others by withholding the software's source code and/or by making them enter into restrictive (and at times, even humiliating) legal contracts such as end user license agreements and non-disclosure agreements. This model of software business subsequently became widespread because of the perceived ease with which software businesses could make money out of this unethical business model, with complete disregard for their customers' rights. This non-free software business model lies at the heart of what we now call the proprietary software industry which has an unfortunately large majority of software users under their control.

Society should reject such a business model which criminalises the act of sharing and which deprives people of their fundamental right to help themselves and to help others. This can be achieved by developing and using only free software.

Free software frees people from the clutches of the proprietary software industry. It gives them the freedom to share, to help themselves and to help others.

Please see the free software definition published by the Free Software Foundation for clear guidelines on what requirements any software should meet in order to qualify as free software. While you are there, please also spend some time going through the philosophy section for more in-depth literature on free software.

What is GNU/Linux

The GNU Project was launched in 1984 to develop a complete Unix-like operating system which is free software: the GNU system. (GNU is a recursive acronym for ``GNU's Not Unix''; it is pronounced "guh-NEW".) Variants of the GNU operating system, which use the kernel Linux, are now widely used; though these systems are often referred to as ``Linux'', they are more accurately called GNU/Linux systems.

The Gnu is the mascot of the world-wide free software movement and the GNU system is its flag-ship software suite.

What is our purpose

Advocating and promoting the use of free software by providing technical assistance related to free software, bringing together free software businesses and free software users, and propagating the message of software freedom in and around the city of Calicut (Kerala, India).

Why we're not a GNU/Linux User Group

Many people adopt and use GNU/Linux purely on the basis of technical and cost criteria, without any appreciation for the underlying message of software freedom. We feel that describing ourselves as a Free Software User Group rather than a GNU/Linux User Group will contribute to a better appreciation of that underlying message.

Also, the free software cause is much bigger than any one operating system. Besides the fact that GNU/Linux is not the only free operating system today (our group welcomes users of other free operating systems too), one must also appreciate the fact that in the fast changing world of computer science and operating systems technology, no operating system or kernel is eternal. The message of software freedom, however, is.

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Contact Information
Email: ajith@nsc.ernet.in

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