Transcription of the 2000 FSF Award Ceremony 1 February 2001 Transcription done by: Sebastien Blondeel [chatty chat] [1:58] RMS [faint] Welcome to the Third Annual Free Software Award Ceremony. [applause] [The microphone being too low, RMS lies/ducks on the stage to be at the right level and stands up little by little] [2:25] RMS: This is a bit more comfortable. What a relief. 17 years ago, we began developing the GNU operating system, designed to be compatible with Unix, and entirely free software, intended to make it possible to use a computer and have the freedom to cooperate fully with other people -- something that was impossible (at?) the time, in 1984, because all of the operating systems (for modern computers?) were proprietary, restricted, dividing users and keeping them helpless. Most users became accustomed to that; they thought it was normal, even inevitable. Some of us did not agree. [dramatic pause] About 8 years later, Linus Torvalds was writing a free kernel named Linux. Putting the two together (GNU and Linux) completed the operating system because we hadn't completely finished GNU at that time. And so the result was that our dream was accomplished: it was actually possible once again to use a computer and freedom. A lot of work remains to be done however. There (are a lot of?) areas in computing where you still can't use free software which means it's (still impossible for people?) to to do their work as part of a community of people who have freedom. And so we decided to have these awards... to give these awards to people who have done something special and significant to advance the world of (free?) software, to make it possible to do some important new things and still keep your freedom. The... Should I talk about (who won the award?) this year now or should I wait till later to say who he is? Ok I'll wait till later. Yes ok so I won't reveal who it is. But he wrote a program that (fulfills?) a very important need (bringing?) freedom into an area where otherwise we would have had a great danger. You see one thing that happens in the field of software is new standards were... de facto standards are developed. And often (supported only?) by non-free software. So every time that happens it's a danger because it's a temptation. People are attracted by this exciting new non-free software. They might start to use and might start to depend on it and become accustomed to having it. And so every time we need to develop free software to do the job so that essentially we can relieve the temptation. So the people who were excited to do that thing won't rush off and leave their freedom behind. Because we give them a way to carry the freedom along instead. And this year's winner has done that. And that should be getting you wondering and thinking -- which is exactly what this is supposed to do. So I will now hand things over to Georg Greve, from the Free Software Foundation Europe. [applause] [6:25] Georg: Thanks. Um. It's my pleasure and honor to welcome all of you to the Free Software Foundation award ceremony on behalf of the Free Software Foundation Europe. And I will try to keep this short since we are pretty late and we want to (get ???). So thanks to our sponsors: Aurora, IDEALX and VA Linux who (funded?) this event. They agreed to give the excess money to the Free Software Foundation Europe and we are very glad to get this money. Before I leave the stage I have more one thing to do that makes me very glad. So I'd like to ask Daniel Riek to come. [applause] [7:20] Being willing to do a task is not always equal to being able to do it. Because everyone has a lot on his program, and sometimes there are people who make it possible to do things. Mr Reik did so for me. He paid me so I was able to work on the Free Software Foundation Europe. So we would like to present him with this certificate of appreciation we prepare on behalf of the Free Software Foundation Europe and the Free Software Foundation. Daniel: Thank you very much. [applause] [8:08] [faint] Thank you it is a surprise for me for because I was not prepared for it. I think that the Free Software Foundation did a great job and I think the Free Software Foundation Europe can do a great job. It is a very important thing to support free software. Thank you very much. [RMS asks for details about the setting up of the FSF Europe] [8:40] Georg: Just a few words. The Free Software Foundation Europe is well there in our spirits and hearts and is almost there legally. Our laywer is done writing the constitution for the central hub organization that will kind of be the central node and is currently working on writing the subconstitution for the local chapters because since there is no European law on setting up something like the Free Software Foundation Europe wide, we have to do in it a way that we have one central node that has a local node in every local country. So we will be present in every European country at least in the long run. So in February we should be able to launch the hub, and in March we should be able to launch the local organizations in France, Italy, Swiss and Germany. And soon after that we expect to be able to go to Sweden, to Spain, and the UK. And from there on we will have to see. But we definitely do want to be present in every country. Ok so now I think it's time to ask Frédéric Couchet to come up here. He will be our French chancelor for the Free Software Foundation Europe, and is also president of APRIL. Frédéric Couchet: Thanks Georg Greve. [applause] [10:05] [speaking in French, translated to English by Sébastien Blondeel] Bon étant donné que mon anglais est terrible je vais parler en français et Sébastien va traduire. [low] Pas besoin de traduire cette partie-là. Avant de remettre en fait le FSF award euh la FSF a voulu remercier quelqu'un de précis en France pour son travail sur le logiciel libre depuis des années. Before they give away the award the FSF wanted to thank someone very particular, very special in France for all the work he has been doing to help free software for a long time now. Plutôt que de donner le CV complet du monsieur (qui est très long), un petit résumé de sa carrière. Il se définit lui-même comme développeur senior qui a commencé en 1987 avec la découverte de GNU Emacs et la distribution de bandes GNU. A little summary of his résumé. It all started in 1987. Well he defines himself as a senior developer. It all started in 1987, err 1-9-8-7, when he discovered Emacs and started distributing tapes of GNU software. En 1989 il crée l'association GNA pour «GNA is Not Axis» par rapport au nom de la société où il travaillait à l'époque bien entendu Axis et le but de la fondation de la création de GNA c'était justement la distribution de bandes GNU. Pendant un an en fait il va prendre des vacances, très peu bouger, et distribuer des bandes GNU, organiser des conférences avec Richard, (???... version anglaise). In 1989, he funded an... association called GNA, for GNA is not Access, because he used to work for a company called Access. And GNA basically distributed GNU tapes, and he also spent his time distributing GNU binaries and organizing conferences for Richard. À cette occasion il va aussi participer à quelques développements sur les binutils, gcc. Et entre 95 et 95...(???) en 95 il se définit lui-même --- c'est marqué --- «Rien de notable(???); j'ai appris à programmer». On pense qu'il a bien appris à programmer quand on regarde un peu son code. [??? That was 1991--1995] Ok, so he contributed to binutils and gcc and things like that, and on his résumé we can see from the years 91 to 95, we can see: "Nothing special, I just learned to program". Well we think he's done a pretty good job learning, because he's very good now. Sa production la plus connue dans le cadre du logiciel libre est dans doute le moteur de recherche Ecila et en fait depuis quelques années il travaille par rapport au domaine senga.org sur le développement d'outils sur le traitement de l'information qui sont totalement libres, il y a un certain nombre d'outils: nifluze(???) qui sont intégrés au moteur(???)... qui sont utilisés notamment par certains fournisseurs d'hébergement etc. Et il ne fait *que* du logiciel libre depuis des années et il ne travaille que pour des gens qui font du logiciel libre. His most famous production is a product named Ecila which is a search engine and on senga.org he's been developing a number of software to process information(???), and all his software is free, he's only been doing free software for a number of years and he only accepts to work for companies that work for and with free software. Actuellement il travaille en fait sur le portage d'un clone sourceforge qui s'appelle savannah.gnu.org et sur la refonte des pages job de GNU notamment en liaison avec Lolix. [Sébastien looks, as previously, for the keywords on the paper for this part but Frédéric mentions laughingly that there is no written aid any more. People laugh and clap] He's now working on a clone of sourceforge called savannah.gnu.org, and a rebuild of the GNU web pages in association... well sorry a rebuild of the GNU web pages related to job offers and jobs, and he does that in cooperation with Lolix. C'est vraiment un grand plaisir pour moi de remettre ce prix de Richard à Loïc parce que Loïc a beaucoup participé au développement d'APRIL d'abord par son hébergement de sa machine en 96 et de la fourniss ...ture de l'accès et aussi par ses nombreux conseils; c'est l'une des personnalités qui en France, dans l'ombre, conseille l'approche la plus claire possible par rapport au logiciel libre et il fait notamment beaucoup pour certaines sociétés qui sont notamment présentes à la LinuxExpo et qui devraient écouter ses conseils. C'est vraiment un grand plaisir de remettre ce prix à Loïc Dachary. [tells Sébastien not to translate this part while applause takes place. Loïc comes to stage.] [15:40] RMS (showing the frame): It's signed by me. Yeah, I do those things. [laughs] I will ask Henri (one of his friends) to come and translate. RMS: no, just talk in English. It slows things down. We're happy to hear your English. Loic: I am pretty happy to receive this award... [recording too low to hear because Loïc stands too far from the mike] I found myself in a position to be a CEO. But it takes ages to really learn how to program. And I can learn more, I want to learn more, I don't want to do something else. There are so many things to do in free software where there are gaps. I want to be the best programmer possible given my mind and my imagination. So I have to learn. And I encourage all developers to take the same attitude and just refuse to become a manager or a CTO because there is so much to do to build a free software world. RMS: So don't do what I did! [laughs] [17:30] Loïc: err... I didn't mean that... when you get... err, ok [confused, he stops his speech. Laughs.] Loïc: I sincerely ... sometimes I regret that you don't program anymore. That's for sure. Last thing I wanted to say is that... everyone has to convince and to teach companies and individuals to distinguish between non-free software and free software because it's a difficult, concept that is hard to understand. It needs lots of talking and explaining that you should not mix non-free software and free software. Most individuals and companies think it's ok to do that, because they don't see the final goal of free software, which is to live in a free software world. And, by mixing all that, by pretending that something is free when it's not, it's slowing down things and preventing things to happen. When you fill the gap with a proprietary software program, you hide the fact that there is a need. As often as I can I speak to individuals and companies in any way that I can in order to make them understand this. And if they do not understand that it's not because they are stupid but because it's a hard concept to get and you need to repeat a lot and a lot. So I will keep doing that, and I hope that you will help do that too. Thank you very much. [applause] [19:25] RMS: Now it's time to give the actual free software award for 2000. To the developer of Mesa, Brian Paul. [applause] [20:00] Brian: [The award being a cloth mainly red, RMS plays the torero with Brian]. [laughs, applause][20:20] RMS: Would you like to say a few words? Brian: Yes, I would like to say a few words. Thank you very much Richard. Sorry. I did have to write something down, so I don't go completely lost and off track here. I want to begin by thanking the open source community and the Free Software Foundation for nominating me and giving(???) me this award. I'm very honored. (???) It just so happens that in a few weeks will be the 10th anniversary of my work in open source software.[???] In 1991 with Bill Hibbert, university of Wisconsin, I started working on a visualization software, on a system that was an atmospheric imaging program. It was distributed under the GNU license, and I didn't appreciate the significance but I understood it afterwards. [largely guessed: too fast, low, interspersed] In my mind, Open Source is largely about collaboration and people help you do things you wouldn't have been able to do on your own. One of the best side-effects of this community is you get to meet people from all around the world, whom you would never have met otherwise---it brings people together. When I say people I above all mean e-mail sort of things. You can actually get to know people pretty well via email, and I think that I've made some pretty good friends... [RMS scribbles something on a piece of paper and shows it to Brian] I've been corrected it's not "open source software" it's "free software". [laughs, applause] [22:20] Please go back and search and replace all occurrences of, "free software" I'm sorry I mean ...of "open source software" [laughs] with "free software". I apologize. (???) In my work on Vis5D[???], I got to know a lot of people around the world who shared an interest in improving the software. In fact, its success could be credited to that of free software.[???] I must say that I will always be in debt to my employer Bill Hibbert first for giving me the job and secondly for introducing me to free software. Also, in my spare time I began to work on a 3D rendering project for which I started developing a 3D graphics library. I got the OpenGL interface specification which was available on the Internet. I downloaded it, read it very quickly, and was very impressed by it and I decided that my graphics library would be using the OpenGL interface. After working on it for about a year and a half, it quickly took off. Withing a matter of weeks I was receiving dozens of emails a week from people around the world who were either sending bug fixes, or new features, or just thank you notes. And thank you notes were something I was not expecting from this work. Thank you's and appreciation from people is one of the things to keep me working on the project for the past 7 years. As it is now, Mesa has become a central component of the X86 Window System. And by being a part of that exposure of people to 3d graphics has increased over the years(???). It's been very rewarding to see 3d graphics becoming so common(???) on the desktop basically. It's largely my love of computer graphics and starboards(???) which has driven me. I just enjoy working with 3D graphics. The free software community gives the best of both those worlds for me. I look forward to more such work in the future. I'd like to finish by again saying thank you to the Open Source[sic] community and the Free Software Foundation. Finally, I'd like to thank my employer VA Linux systems for sending me to LinuxExpo and here for this special occasion. Thank you very much. [applause] [25:10] RMS: Well now you see how much of a struggle it is for the Free Software Movement to be remembered. Most of the people who use our software think we don't exist any more and that we've been replaced by the Open Source Movement which of course exists since 1998, but we in the Free Software Movement we also exist continuing to put a focus on ideas of freedom and what kind of society we want to live in. Which in general the open source movement doesn't talk about. They contributed in many ways(???) to the increase of free software that we have, and have contributed a lot to the free software community, but the Free Software Movement does something that in the long term is essential. And that is to focus people's attention on the meaning of having freedom for the long term. And we are the only ones(???) in the long term to make the effort to address the problem. Now there are problems relating very closely to Mesa and XFree86. Because they are free softwarem, but sometimes it's hard to make them run as free software on some of the popular new hardware. And the reason is that hardware manufacturers today often do not tell us how to run the hardware. They give you(???) the hardware but not how to run(???) it. It's Rather strange, I would think, but it's not unusal. And the area of 3D video hardware is one where there's a major problem today. There is essentially a monopoly now on that component: high quality accelerators. And the monopolists won't release full specs. So people actually are trying to improve free software on that type of hardware, but meanwhile there is a tempting non-free program you can use to run it. Now this temptation is dangerous because if we accept using non-free software to... with this hardware, we've given up a goal: of using software and freedom. And it's probably (???) more and more. Now people in the community have two reactions to this. One reaction is, let's make it easy and convenient to install the non-free software to run that hardware. Perhaps for those who look in terms of practicality (say the Open Source philosophers), that seems like a solution, but for the Free Software philosophy, it's not a solution, it's hiding the problem. Now, there is a free driver available... there is free software available to run these video cards, at the moment it's not as powerful. But if you want freedom, that's what you need to use. Now I myself would either use hardware with free software or just not get (that hardware???). And I think it's important for people to consider the option---of buying only hardware that is not as fancy but is usable conveniently with freedom and comes from a company that supports the free software community fully. Now one thing I hope is I would find a person to do... to develop a list that will be updated that describes which hardware manufacturers cooperate with our community and which do not. Something that describes the status of which products can be used entirely with free software and which cannot.(???) If you're interested in working on this project, it's really a big job(???), please send mail to gnu@gnu.org. By informing people when they have choices available we'll be able to put more market pressure on the companies that refuse to cooperate with our freedom and we'll be able to get a lot of them to change. Finally, I should mention something about the state of software patents in Europe. A few months ago countries in eunet(???) discussed whether to amend a treaty to authorize software patents in the European Patent Office. The free software community has got very organized about this issue in Europe and managed to make the governments aware of the problems of the software patents and they originally changed. [TODO NDsbi: footnote to list of governments and their feelings about this [from RMSconf]?] But now, the European Union has got into the act. And the directorate which is in charge is pretty obedient to large multinational companies, which want software patents. So the next step is going to have to be, I believe, to work with the individual governments of Europe to get to block this initiative also. The European Union recently conducted a study of software patents and lots of people sent in comments and answers(???), pointing out the problems. And the European Union people simply ignored it. Completely. And came out in favor of patents. So we have an uphill battle to fight, but we've seen that we can win these battles. Those of you in Europe *must* participate in this fight. For more information go look at www.freepatents.org, website of Jean-Paul Smets, one of the great leaders in this battle. There is also a petition you can sign, and signatures are welcome from outside Europe as well. I've signed; I'm not a citizen of Europe. This petition is located at petition.eurolinux.org. Please sign if you have not, and please talk with anyone who runs a business(???) you know. And not just software businesses or computer businesses but restaurants, cold stores(???), and anything. About the new bureaucracy they're going to be tangled up in, if software patents are allowed. Thank you in advance, for helping in this fight. [applause] [31:40] Frédéric: The recording of this show will be shown at LinuxExpo tomorrow. I thank especially École Centrale Polytechnique and IDEALX... Sorry? École Centrale PARIS! [note: "Polytechnique" is another famous engineering school in France] Oh sorry. [laughs] Come back. So École Centrale Paris and IDEALX we'll show the ceremony only with free software named VideoLan and secondwards(???) there is a cocktail upstairs. [laughs]. Thanks. [applause] RMS: Happy hacking everyone! =============================================================================== Place where this took place: . Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme, 71 rue du Temple, F-75003 Paris People, products, or institutions mentioned: . Free Software Foundation . GNU project (same website) . Free Software Foundation Europe . APRIL . École Centrale de Paris . Ecila . Senga . Savannah . Mesa . VideoLan . Freepatents . Petition against software patents in Europe . Richard M. Stallman founder of the FSF and the GNU project . Georg Greve head of FSF Europe . Frédéric Couchet president of APRIL and French Chancelor of the FSF Europe . Loïc Dachary "senior developer" . Brian Paul FSF award winner . To volunteer for some needed GNU task mailto: Sponsors of the event . Aurora . IDEALX . VA Linux Systems Thanks also to . the IDEALX post-production team for their after hours . Loïc Cuguen for his dedication and research . Bradley Kuhn for his rough transcription . Sébastien Blondeel for translation live on stage and finalization of transcription . Samuel Hocevar for his C program to turn the full video stream into a lightweight sound-only stream, which helped transcription. [TODO NDsbi: include it? refer to it? URL then?] TODO: mention/give link to: Daniek Riek? GNA? Axis? Nifluze? Lolix? Bill Hibbert (sp?) Vis5d? Jean-Paul Smets?