Introduction to FOSS. Made for introducing my college juniors into Free and Open Source Software.

1. iCell – Innovation Cell
VISION :
 To promote research activities among students.
 To develop an ecosystem wherein students and staff work
together to form a knowledge sharing community.

2. Aim of this meeting
 Till now iCell was focused on promoting research
activities alone.
 This meeting would make the initiation of a
programming community among the iCell members.

3. Introduction to FOSS
 What is FOSS?
 Definition of Free Software
 Why should you know about FOSS
 The Hacker Perspective
 How to become a Hacker

4. What is FOSS?
FOSS - Free and Open Source Software
 liberally licensed to grant the right of
users to use, study, change, and
improve its design through the
availability of its source code.

5. What all comes under FOSS
FOSS is based on THREE open pillars
Open Source Open Standards Open Content
-GCC, Linux Kernel -World Wide Web architecture specified by W3C -Wikipedia
-Python, Java.PHP -Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
-Drupal, Wordpress -Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and
Extensible HTML (XHTML)
-Firefox, VLC
-Portable Network Graphics (PNG)
-Ogg (audio formats) & Theora (a video format)
-OpenDocument Format (ODF)

6. Definition of Free Software
 The word ”Free” in Free Software does not mean the
price, it refers to freedom.
 Four Freedoms :
 Freedom 0 : The freedom to run the program for any
purpose
 Freedom 1 :The freedom to study how the program works,
and change it to make it do what you wish.
 Freedom 2 :The freedom to redistribute copies so you can
help your neighbor.
 Freedom 3 : The freedom to improve the program, and
release your improvements to the public, so that the whole
community benefits.

7. Father of Free Software Foundation
 Richard Matthew Stallman (RMS)
 He launched the GNU project in September 1983 –
Marks the initiation of the Free Software Movement

8. Why should you know about FOSS?
 Firstly, we should know what we use. Issues should be
solvable.

9. Why should you know about FOSS
 Some of the best applications in the tech world are
the result of decentralized contributions
 Wikipedia – Online encyclopedia
 Wireshark – Network Protocol Analyzer
 Pidgin – IM Client
 Notepad-plus – Text Editor
 VLC – Media Player
 Eclipse and NetBeans - IDE
 BitTorrent – P2P
 Android – Mobile OS

10. The Hacker Perspective
 Difference between a hacker and a cracker.

11. Are you a hacker?
 A Hacker is anyone who finds himself as a part of the
shared culture of expert programmers and networking
wizards.
 Hackers built the Internet
 Hackers made the Unix Operating System
 Hackers made the WWW
 If you are part of this culture, and if you have
contributed to it, then YOU are a HACKER.

12. If not, how to become a hacker?
 Step 1 : Learn how to program
 Step 2 : Get one of the open source OS
 Step 3 : Learn to use and program the WWW
 Step 4 : Learn functional English