foss: why should it matter to students
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Zends India Strategy
FOSSWhy should it matter to Students
About Me
Manager, Community & Relations at OSSCube
Contributes to: LibreOffice, Drupal, Mozilla Firefox, Ubuntu, phpBB, Wordpress, and some other projects
Indie Game Developer, Musician, Photographer
kinshuksunil.com
Getting to knowthe Audience
What are your fundamental rights?
Right to Equality
maistora/Colorful Army
Right to Freedom
Kudomomo/Freedom
Right against Exploitation
Jankie/Women at a market in Bandarban
Right to Freedom of Religion
Gurumustuk Singh
Right against Discrimination
Pasma/the ugly duckling
Right to Constitutional Remedies
Human rights?
Rights to Liberty
Rights to Politics
Rights to Welfare
Rights to Equality
Rights to Security
Rights to Due Process
Rights to Group & Ethnicity
zen/cedar
ButWe are talking Free Software
Freedom to run the program for any purpose.
ruiwen/Software Freedom Day, Singapore
Freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish.
ian_munroe/Codes
Freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbour.
Giant Gingko/Redistribution
Freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.
riebart/code
Do you ?
A 19 year old Finnish college student started one of the most important open source projects
A 22 year old Belgian student created one of the most popular CMS out there
A 19 year old American student created one of the most popular Blogging Platform
No, he did not create any FOSS software. But, he created one of the largest product-based business powered by FOSS
What was different about them ?
Linus wanted to create a terminal emulator, independent of system hardware. He ended up creating an operating system
Dries was handling a bulletin board and needed something to help him manage it. He ended up writing what grew into Drupal.
When the blogging software that Matt used for hosting his blog died, he forked it to fulfill his software needs. This later became Wordpress.
Mark was building a product that was growing exponentially. He needed efficient software to power the Facebook.
In Short: They all had an itch
What the freedoms can do for you?
You can run the software
You get access to source code
You can explore how theories are implemented in real
You can explore algorithms and system logic
You can explore system design
The license ensures that
GNU Public License and derivativesApache LicenseSimplified/Modified BSD LicenseMIT LicenseMany other licenses
The only thing Free Software cannot ensure is:
Do you have the itch ?
What to do with the itch ?
Pick* up a FOSS project
* Don't reinvent the wheel
Contribute!Contribute!Contribute!
Why Contribute ?
Learn Programming Languages
Learn Software Development concepts
Learn Software Architecture
Build Skillsets
Get a Job in Google* !
* There is no shortage of opportunities for talented people in any field of endeavour
What is important is: Do you deserve it?
Contribute ?
Source CodeBug ReportsPatch Reviews
DocumentationLocalisation
Help & Support
Spread the word
Use the SoftwareRespect ItLove It
FOSS can ensure the FreedomBut you have to be
Free!
Wake up!
contact me at [email protected]
This whole presentation was made in an insane race against time and so I have not been able to research all my facts. I hope, I did not get anything wrong.
This presentation is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution, Share-Alike License.
I'll be glad if you find uses for it