GNU/Linux-Madurai User's Group of Madurai

The contents of this Linux-Madurai site are (being) created by a group of (GNU)Linux hackers/lovers. Furthermore developed and maintained by maduraidirectory.com

Initially a free operating system GNU project was started by Richard Stallman (wants to be called as RMS), founder of the GNU project and the President of the Free Software Foundation, in 1984. After years of work, in 1991 when GNU was almost finished, the kernel Linux, developed by a young student, Linus Torvalds, at the University of Helsinki in Finland, filled the last gap. Finally the first release of the free operating system GNU/Linux was released successfully in the same year, which you all happily hacking now.

In RMS's word, "the statements like -Linus Torvalds developed the Linux operating System- are not true. It is somewhat similar to stating 1+i=2". So the whole system should be represented as "GNU/Linux operating system" whenever we talk about "Linux operating system". But, among the hackers, both the terms are used interchangeably by mislead.

"Linux" and the penguin "Tux", the logo used by this GNU/Linux operating system, are original trademarks of Linus Torvalds.

:: Is this free or open source software?

GNU/Linux is not an open source operating system, but free operating system. Means, you may copy, study, modify and redistribute. These are freedoms. They are not intrinsic to the technology: there exists software that you are forbidden to copy, forbidden to study, forbidden to modify and forbidden from redistributing.

The low price of free software leads some English speakers to think that the word 'free' in the phrase 'free software' means they can obtain it without cost. This is not the definition, which is about freedom, but is is an easy misunderstanding. 'free beer' and 'free speech' are different. When you speak of 'free beer', you mean beer without cost; but when you speak of 'free speech' you mean freedom. Free software is the 'freedom' software.

The Free Software movement and the Open Source movement are like two political camps within the free software community.

The fundamental difference bet' the two movements is in their values, their ways of looking at the world. For the Open Source movement, the issue of whether software should be open source is a practical question, not an ethical one. As one person put it, "Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement.'' For the Open Source movement, non-free software is a suboptimal solution. For the Free Software movement, non-free software is a social problem and free software is the solution.

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