by: Jerome Auza
In my career as an IT professional, I have learned a lot technically from the works of Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation. So obviously, when I heard he was giving a talk to students and IT enthusiasts at the University of the Philippines – Cebu City, I took this rare chance to meet the man who influenced the direction I took as a software developer.
As he spoke, I can really sense his passion on ensuring that the current and future generations of software developers and users will enjoy the four freedoms, as follows:
– The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
– The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1).
– Access to the source code is a precondition for this.The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
– The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
Discussion on the four freedoms will be a long discussion and is best explained on the FSF website. Why are we counting from 0 to 3? It is something you should ask me if we meet. It is a good start of a conversation. Any computer science or computer engineering student or graduate should know, by the way.
One thing I noticed was that Stallman was barefoot while speaking to the audience. During the question and answer, he requested the ones asking questions to speak loudly and clearly as he has difficulty hearing. He also wanted the questions to be direct to the point.
As the session was drawing to an end and the participants where preparing for the group picture, I saw Stallman trying to put back his shoes on. I noticed that it seemed difficult for him to do that so I asked, “Richard, do you need help?”. And he said, yes and mumbled something about pain on his shoulders if he stretched his arms towards his feet.
And so there I was, at the right place and right time, to help Richard Stallman put back his shoes on. I’m sure this is a non-significant event in the overall chain of events in the IT world. But I can say to myself, I have paid back a little bit to the founder of FSF. If not for his work, the Internet might be a different thing and I may be somewhere else.
Richard Stallman putting back his shoes on with a little help from Jerome Auza.
Richard Stallman (3rd from the left, bottom row) poses with the participants.