The Gnu Project
The first software-sharing community
Richard Stallman - The Father Of Gnu Project
When started working at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab in 1971, I became part of a software-sharing community that had existed for many years. Sharing of software was not limited to our particular community; it is as old as computers, just as sharing of recipes is as old as cooking. But we did it more than most.
The AI Lab used a timesharing operating system called ITS (the Incompatible Timesharing System) that the lab's staff hackers had designed and written in assembler language for the Digital PDP-10, one of the large computers of the era. As a member of this community, an AI Lab staff system hacker, my job was to improve this system.
We did not call our software “free software”, because that term did not yet exist; but that is what it was. Whenever people from another university or a company wanted to port and use a program, we gladly let them. If you saw someone using an unfamiliar and interesting program, you could always ask to see the source code, so that you could read it, change it, or cannibalize parts of it to make a new program.
The use of “hacker” to mean “security breaker” is a confusion on the part of the mass media. We hackers refuse to recognize that meaning, and continue using the word to mean someone who loves to program, someone who enjoys playful cleverness, or the combination of the two. See my article, On Hacking.
The collapse of the community
The situation changed drastically in the early 1980s when Digital discontinued the PDP-10 series. Its architecture, elegant and powerful in the 60s, could not extend naturally to the larger address spaces that were becoming feasible in the 80s. This meant that nearly all of the programs composing ITS were obsolete.
The AI Lab hacker community had already collapsed, not long before. In 1981, the spin-off company Symbolics had hired away nearly all of the hackers from the AI Lab, and the depopulated community was unable to maintain itself. (The book Hackers, by Steve Levy, describes these events, as well as giving a clear picture of this community in its prime.) When the AI Lab bought a new PDP-10 in 1982, its administrators decided to use Digital's nonfree timesharing system instead of ITS.
The modern computers of the era, such as the VAX or the 68020, had their own operating systems, but none of them were free software: you had to sign a nondisclosure agreement even to get an executable copy.
This meant that the first step in using a computer was to promise not to help your neighbor. A cooperating community was forbidden. The rule made by the owners of proprietary software was, “If you share with your neighbor, you are a pirate. If you want any changes, beg us to make them.”
The idea that the proprietary software social system—the system that says you are not allowed to share or change software—is antisocial, that it is unethical, that it is simply wrong, may come as a surprise to some readers. But what else could we say about a system based on dividing the public and keeping users helpless? Readers who find the idea surprising may have taken the proprietary software social system as a given, or judged it on the terms suggested by proprietary software businesses. Software publishers have worked long and hard to convince people that there is only one way to look at the issue.
When software publishers talk about “enforcing” their “rights” or “stopping piracy”, what they actually say is secondary. The real message of these statements is in the unstated assumptions they take for granted, which the public is asked to accept without examination. Let's therefore examine them.
One assumption is that software companies have an unquestionable natural right to own software and thus have power over all its users. (If this were a natural right, then no matter how much harm it does to the public, we could not object.) Interestingly, the US Constitution and legal tradition reject this view; copyright is not a natural right, but an artificial government-imposed monopoly that limits the users' natural right to copy.
Another unstated assumption is that the only important thing about software is what jobs it allows you to do—that we computer users should not care what kind of society we are allowed to have.A third assumption is that we would have no usable software (or would never have a program to do this or that particular job) if we did not offer a company power over the users of the program. This assumption may have seemed plausible, before the free software movement demonstrated that we can make plenty of useful software without putting chains on it.
If we decline to accept these assumptions, and judge these issues based on ordinary commonsense morality while placing the users first, we arrive at very different conclusions. Computer users should be free to modify programs to fit their needs, and free to share software, because helping other people is the basis of society.
Some of the main products of the gnu project are
Gnome : A desktop environment for Linux
Gimp : The Gnu Image Manipulation Program
Eye Of Gnome : An Image Viewer
GCC : A c compiler
Gnome Games : A collection of games
Gnome Mplayer : A good frond end for Mplayer
Tux4Kids Project
Tux4Kids develops high-quality software for kids, with the goal of combining fun and learning into an irresistable package. Our software is free: you can download it for use at home or onto hundreds of computers in a school. Tux4Kids support all major platforms, including Windows, Macintosh, and Linux/Unix. Their programs are used by people around the globe, and they have been translated into dozens of different languages. As open-source software, these programs can be freely extended or customized, and they are supported by active communities of volunteer developers.
Whether you're a parent, a teacher, or a kid, give Tux4Kids software a try!
Some of the main products of the gnu project are
TuxTyping : A typing tutorial tool
TuxPaint : A painting application
TuxMath : A mathematics study tool
The Xfce project contains several separated projects for each part of the desktop
XFCE contains lightweight softwares that give maximum speed
The Main Products Of XFCE
Core Components
Window Manager
It manages the placement of application windows on the screen, provides window decorations and manages workspaces or virtual desktops.
Panel
The panel is a bar which allows you to have at all times program launchers, panel menus, a clock, a desktop switcher and more.
Desktop Manager
This program sets the background image and provides a root window menu, desktop icons or minimized icons and a windows list.
Session Manager
The session manager controls all aspects of the startup and the shutdown of the user session.
Settings Manager
It allows you to configure every detail of your desktop environment.
Utilities and Scripts
Essential utilities and scripts. Provides a credits and license dialog, a dialog for launching applications and several important scripts.
Xfce Libraries
They provide additional functions and widgets which ease the development of applications.
Xfconf
Simple client-server configuration storage and query system.
Thunar File Manager
Thunar is a new modern file manager designed from the ground up to be fast and easy-to-use.
Application Finder
Allows you to search, launch and find information about applications installed on your system.
Applications
Web Browser
Midori is a lightweight Web browser.
Terminal
Terminal is a modern terminal emulator featuring tabs and transparent backgrounds.
Xfburn
Xfburn is an application to create and burn CD's and DVD's.
Orage
A simple calendar application with reminders.
Mixer
Allows you to change the volume of the different audio tracks.
Image Viewer
Ristretto is a lightweight image viewer.
LXDE Poject
LXDE
LXDE is a GPL licensed open source desktop environment for Unix and other POSIX compliant platforms, such as Linux. The name LXDE stands for "Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment".
LXDE is an energy saving and extremely fast and performing desktop solution. It works well with computers on the low end of the performance spectrum such as new generation netbooks and other small mobile computers. LXDE is designed for cloud networks such as local freifunk clouds or the global Internet cloud. It can be built on top of various Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Debian or Fedora. It is the standard for Knoppix and lubuntu. LXDE also runs with OpenSolaris and BSD. It provides a fast desktop experience connecting easily with applications in the cloud and supports a wealth of programs, that can be installed with Linux systems locally. LXDE already supports many computer processor architectures including Intel, MIPS and ARM.
The LXDE project started 2006 when Hong Yen Jee from Taiwan, known as PCMan, published the first component PCMan File Manager. Today the LXDE team has grown into an international community of developers, designers and contributors from all over the world.
Main LXDE Products
PCManFM
The ultimate fast and robust file manager. It provides tabbed file browsing and desktop icons with low system resource usage.
LXPanel
Feature-rich yet user-friendly desktop panel providing most crucial functions you expect from a desktop panel. Configuration is done through a graphic user interface.
LXSession Lite
Standard-compliant X11 session manager with shutdown/reboot/suspend supports via HAL and gdm.
LXSession Edit
The standard session edit manager, with ability to turn on disabled applications in LXDE.
LXAppearance
LXAppearance is a new feature-rich GTK+ theme switcher able to change GTK+ themes, icon themes, and fonts used by applications.
LXLauncher
LXLauncher enables the desktop to have topic oriented desktops.
Openbox
Lightweight, standard-compliant, and highly-configurable window manager (adapted by LXDE. We suggest using this as default window manager.). This can be replaced by any other window manager like icewm, fluxbox, metacity, ...etc.
GPicView
A very simple, fast, and lightweight image viewer featuring immediate startup.
Leafpad
Lightweight and simple text editor adapted by LXDE. (We suggest using this as default text editor.).
LXDE Common
LXDE Common is the default settings configuration file for integrating the different components of LXDE. LXDE Common manages the system behavior and functions to integrate icons and artwork.
LXTerminal
Desktop-independent VTE-based terminal emulator for LXDE without any unnecessary dependency (All instances share the same process to reduce memory usage).
XArchiver
Lightweight, fast, and desktop-independent gtk+-based file archiver (adapted by LXDE. We suggest using this as as default archiver).
LXRandR
Monitor configuring tool. You can plug in another screen into LXDE or choose to use a big screen projector. Local screen and extenal screen can be used at the same time. LXRandR configures the screen solution automatically.
KDE Project
The KDE® Community is an international technology team dedicated to creating a free and user-friendly computing experience, offering an advanced graphical desktop, a wide variety of applications for communication, work, education and entertainment and a platform to easily build new applications upon. We have a strong focus on finding innovative solutions to old and new problems, creating a vibrant atmosphere open for experimentation.
Main KDE Prodects
KDE - The K desktop enviornment
Kwrite - K text editor
Kmplayer - K Interface for Mplayer .
Konsole - The terminal emulater for KDE
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