RMS
It's not the Gates, it's the bars
To pay so much attention to Bill Gates' retirement is missing the point. What really matters is not Gates, nor Microsoft, but the unethical system of restrictions that Microsoft, like many other software companies, imposes on its customers.
Mac OS X mistakes and malfeatures
I have said in speeches that Apple could forcibly impose software changes in Mac OS X, just as Microsoft can with Windows. I heard this in the Mac community, but there is no published information that confirms it, and I now believe that I was misinformed. There is no evidence that Apple has installed software changes without the user's permission.
Lest CodePlex perplex
Many in our community are suspicious of the CodePlex Foundation. With its board of directors dominated by Microsoft employees and ex-employees, plus apologist Miguel de Icaza, there is plenty of reason to be wary of the organization. But that doesn't prove its actions will be bad.
On Selling Exceptions to the GNU GPL
The practice of selling license exceptions became a hot topic when I co-signed Knowledge Ecology International's letter warning that Oracle's purchase of MySQL (plus the rest of Sun) might not be good for MySQL.
Who does that server really serve?
On the Internet, proprietary software isn't the only way to lose your freedom. Software as a Service is another way to let someone else have power over your computing.
Digital economy bill: One clown giveth and the other clown taketh away
MPs are pushing for faster broadband in the digital economy bill – but also planning to restrict what the public can do with it
Visit to La Paz (2004-08-12 to 2004-08-17)
I am now visiting La Paz, Bolivia. The city is on the edge of the altiplano, starting on the plain at 13000 feet and running down through a connected series of valleys. The result is amazing beauty. Traveling between neighborhoods often means seeing marvelous vistas. The snow-capped mountain Illimani can also be seen from much of the city.
Visit to La Paz, Part II (2004-08-12 to 2004-08-17)
On my next-to-last day in La Paz, I went to see the ancient ruins of Tiwanaku, and Lake Titicaca. My hosts and I hired a taxi for the whole day--it was the only way to go. When we got to Tiwanaku, we took a little too long eating lunch, which forced us to hurry a bit visiting the ruins and the museum.
WIPO in Geneva (2004-09-10 to 2004-09-19)
This morning I arrived in Geneva for a meeting of consumer groups on how to deal with the problems caused by WIPO(an organization whose aim is to impose increased "intellectual property rights" on the public).
Norway (2004-09-14 to 2004-09-19)
I went to Norway to speak at a Java conference, and I was probably the only person in the room who did not know the Java language. (I expect to be in Java a month from now, and I've been studying Indonesian on and off for a couple of years, but I have never learned to read Java.)
Luxemburg (2004-09-27 to 2004-09-28)
Yesterday I visited Luxemburg for the first time. Now I have been in all the countries of the European Union.
Two Hours from Death? (2004-09-28 to 2004-10-02)
A week ago my plan was to give two speeches in Amsterdam on Wednesday Sep 29, then go to Paris on Sep 30. But in Geneva I learned that there was an e-Democracy conference in Paris on Sep 30 at which it would be useful for me to speak. Francis Muguet was organizing my participation, but it turned out on Tuesday that the only time I could speak was the morning.
Australia, Malaysia, Jakarta (2004-10-03 to 2004-10-22)
I was invited to Australia so as to speak at the Builder conference, which was canceled shortly before I got there (but they had already bought my tickets). This did not mean the visit was wasted, since I had arranged 9 other speeches. The Australian Senate had attached some conditions to the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement, and it looked like the US might reject the treaty as a result, which would give Australia a second chance to escape. I arranged to give several speeches about the danger of software patents.
Bali (2004-10-24 to 2004-10-31)
It was horribly hot in Denpasar when I arrived, just as it had been in Java, Malaysia, and Singapore. But I expected it to be comfortable in Ubud, which is at a higher elevation. I arranged to stay in a really nice home-stay place, where I stayed the previous time, around 7 years ago. I was comfortable there without air conditioning on my previous visit.
Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico (2004-11-15 to 2004-12-01)
I spent a week in Venezuela, giving a speech and some interviews at an event which invited speakers from all across Latin America. During the event, the state oil company PDVSA announced its decision to switch 100% to free software. Their decision is not based on convenience or cost; it is based on sovereignty. Their computers used to be handled by a US company, SAIC. When opponents of President Chavez tried to drive him from office by shutting down oil protection, the US government helped out by telling SAIC to prevent them from using their computers. PDVSA therefore knows from experience that using non-free software means you are at the mercy of the developers, and has decided to solve the problem for good and all.
Encounter with President Chavez (2004-12-01 to 2004-12-06)
I returned to Venezuela after Mexico, for a conference called Artists and Intellectuals in Defense of Humanity. On Saturday, our main activity was a meeting where President Chavez would speak. I had lunch that day with Sergeant-Major Torres, who has converted the Venezuelan Army's servers to GNU/Linux, and his wife. Since we've become friends, I encouraged him to come back to the hotel and try to get into the meeting too, figuring the security would probably ok his entry, and they did.
Santander and Bilbao (2004-12-13 to 2004-12-16)
My short trip this month began with speeches in Santander and Bilbao, Spain. Traveling to Santander gave me a chance to see the beautiful rock-surrounded beaches; we also had time for a brief trip to the mountains of Asturias to the west.
Visit to Marrakech (2004-12-19 to 2004-12-20)
I started writing this in the station in Rabat, after getting off the train from Marrakech. You could call it the Marrakech Express, or the Marrakech Local, because there's only one kind of train between Marrakech and Casablanca or Rabat. The trains are European, perhaps 30 years old--enough to seem less than new, but not enough to be quaint.
Blizzard (2004-12-26)
On Dec 26 I went home to Boston from Spain. About 40 minutes before arrival time, my laptop display died completely. It had previously shown a tendency to turn off occasionally, but suspending and unsuspending had fixed it before. This time no; not even shutting down the machine and removing the batteries made the screen function. I began to wonder how I could get any further work done until I obtained a new machine. Would connecting it to an external monitor produce a useful display?
Conversation with a Parrot (2005-01-05)
This week I met Irene Pepperberg and Alex, the African gray parrot that she has taught to understand and use a large number of words.
Response to Fox News Article
Jim Prendergast's recent article mistakenly called me a "leader in the open source community". While I appreciate the praise that might be read into that expression, it is not the case: I do not advocate "open source" and never did. I founded the Free Software Movement in 1984. "Free", here refers to freedom, not price; specifically the freedom to redistribute and change the software you use. With free software, the users control the software; with non-free software, the developer has control of the software and its users.
Bolivia (2005-01-19 to 2005-01-27)
Visiting Bolivia provided an opportunity for me to spend a week with Tania. I had better explain that Tania isn't just my friend; she's my sweetheart. Since she lives in Colombia, it isn't easy for us to spend time together. I used frequent flier miles to get her a ticket to Bolivia while I was to be there. In arranging this trip, I agreed to go speak in Santa Cruz provided either I went there for a very short time or Tania could go with me. The day before going to Bolivia was when I learned that the trip to Santa Cruz had been arranged for both of us together.
Delhi (2005-01-31 to 2005-02-03)
I arrived at Delhi at 3am on a flight that had been delayed by an hour and a half. I had expected to do a lot of work on the flight, but I was unexpectedly drowsy and nodded off for a few hours. When I arrived at the airport, the wait for passport control was only 20 minutes, and I spent part of the time explaining free software to another passenger who was curious about it. My bag was already in the carousel when I reached it, so I exited into the terminal and passed along the line of people holding up signs. None had my name on it. The person who was supposed to meet me was not there.
Impressions of Syria (2005-02-28 to 2005-03-03)
In late February, when I mentioned to people in Europe that I was soon going to Syria, they were worried for me. They thought that the tension resulting from the US decision to blame Syria for the assassination of Hariri would somehow make visiting Syria dangerous.
Too Late for Bulgaria (2005-04-19 to 2005-04-22)
For an open audience of university students and the public interested in Free Software, Stallman attended a videoconference in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 1995, of all the countries in Europe, the one I would most have loved to visit was Bulgaria. Bulgarian folk dances were the most exciting, and I loved to do them. I loved the music as well, and learned to play many of the tunes on my recorder. It is no coincidence that I used a Bulgarian folk dance tune for the Free Software Song. If anyone had invited me to Bulgaria, I would have arranged to stay there for a few weeks, and found an opportunity to study dancing and listen to a lot of music. However, Bulgaria in the 90s had other priorities. No one ever invited me to go there andspeak.
The Alhambra Inalambrica
Stallman visits The Alhambra in Spain during a trip to the University of Granada. The Alhambra was one of the sites I arranged to see when I visited Spain almost ten years ago, before I could speak much Spanish. I found it amazingly beautiful, but time had eaten away at the memories.I could still remember how I was struck by its beauty, but I could not remember anything specific about what I had seen. So when I was invited to speak in Granada, I eagerly accepted.
Moors, Christians, and no Atheists (2005-04-26 to 2005-05-09)
A whirlwind trip around Spain in late April brought Stallman to places such as Granada, Ourense, Vigo, Galicia, La Coruna, Madrid, Castellon and Valencia. In La Coruna and in Castellon, he met with Computer Science students. Madrid's Fundacion Conocimiento Libre (Free Knowledge Foundation) named Stallman an "Honor's Patron" and invited him to give a speech there. He visited Spain coming directly from Sofia, Bulgaria, and he leaves immediately after for Bologna, Italy. After Granada I stopped for one day in Madrid, where I participated in a protest against software patents. There was a protest at everyuniversity in Spain, and I read that 15,000 people participated.
Second visit to Taiwan (2005-05-22 to 2005-05-30)
Stopping first at the National Taiwan University, Stallman gave a speech to 200 Computer Science students who had only been slightly exposed to free software. He then moved on to the Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica in Taipei, participating in a panel discussion on "Copyright vs. Community in the Age of Computer Networks" for copyright researchers, their assistants, and legal scholars. The final speech of the trip took place at the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHPC) in Xinzhu. For NCHPC scientists, engineers, university faculty and students, Stallman gave a speech entitled "The Free Software Movement and the GNU/Linux Operating System."
Belgium and Spain (2005-05-31 to 2005-06-19)
Stallman spoke in front of the Greens in the European Parliament in Brussels on June 2, 2005. As keynote speaker, Stallman spoke on Free Software and Software Patents, introducing the event centered on software patents in Europe.
Fireworks in Montreal (2005-07-01 to 2005-07-05)
For the beginning of July I went to Montreal. I had been invited for a conference on software and education, but it seems like too much of a rush to stay for just two days, and not efficient to make the trip for just one speech. So I arranged a second speech at the University of Quebec.
Venezuela (2005-07-20 to 2005-07-31)
Speaking for the "Primer Congreso Nacional de Software Libre," Richard Stallman took an opportunity to promote software freedoms in Maracaibo, Venezuela. Stallman then traveled to Caracas for the launch of Venezuela's newest TV news channel, Telesur. He had a slight change in schedule, meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. In Merida, Stallman's next stop in Venezuela, he spoke for the networking workshop called WALC 2005, organized by ESLARED.
Spain, Frankfurt, and Wikimania (2005-08-01 to 2005-08-08)
Stallman visited Spain to participate in a roundtable discussion on installing and supporting free software in Andalusia. He then spoke in Frankfurt, Germany for the 2005 Wikimania conference on his views of copyright. There, he laid out a timeline on his views of copyright and how that has influenced projects such as Wikipedia.
FOSSAP II (2005-08-29 to 2005-09-04)
Stallman attends the second Free and Open Source Software Asia-Pacific Consultation (FOSSAP II) in Siem Reap, Cambodia. While there, he visits Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur and China, speaking in each place for various organizations and universities.
The Closest Thing to a Vacation (2005-08-29 to 2005-09-04)
As part of his trip to Cambodia, Kuala Lumpur and China, Stallman reacts to the copyright statements of the World Trade Organization.
Hong Kong (2005-09-04 to 2005-09-09)
Stallman visited Hong Kong on a trip to the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He spoke to engineering students and the members of a Hong Kong users group. The speech was sponsored by the University of Hong Kong department of Engineering and the department of Information Engineering.
Hong Kong and China, Part II (2005-09-04 to 2005-09-18)
Richard Stallman visits the Chinese University of Hong Kong to talk with engineering students on the issue of copyright and community. Visitors from the Hong Kong Linux User Group also attend the speech.
Mexico, Guatemala City (2005-09-24 to 2005-09-29)
Richard Stallman visits Mexico to speak for a free software event that reinforces the need for all research and development to be free. The event, entitled "Festival GNU/Linux y Software Libre", was held at the University of Guadalajara.
Bogotá (2005-10-19 to 2005-10-30)
On Oct 19 I began the first trip in many years that wasn't primarily for the sake of my work. Tania asked me to go to Bogota to be with her in her thesis presentation. I was happy that my presence was important to her, so of course I said yes. After various schedule changes, we settled finally on Oct 19 to 28. That would give me a fair amount of time after her presentation, when she would be more relaxed.
The WSIS in Tunis (2005-11-16 to 2005-11-21)
Richard Stallman participates in the United Nations summit in Tunis after being invited by his friends in the Asia Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP).
Venezuela Odyssey (2006-01-18 to 2006-01-27)
Richard Stallman speaks in Trujillo and Caracas, Venezuela. He finishes off his speaking tour by heading to Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.
Yucatan, Washington and New York (2006-01-27 to 2006-02-11)
Richard Stallman visits the Yucatan to speak with students at the Universidad del Mayab.
Brussels, San Sebastian, Bilbao, Gigón (2006-02-24 to 2006-03-04)
Richard Stallman speaks at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels, Belgium for the annual FOSDEM event. While in Europe, he travels to the IADIS conference in Spain and visits the Escuela Politecnica Superior de Ingeneiria de Gijon, Universidad de Oviedo as well.
