FLOSS CEC 


Free/Libre/Open-Source Software Cell at College of Engineering Chengannur

   

 Welcome to the webpage of the FLOSS cell at College of Engineering Chengannur.

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What is Free Software

    Free software is a matter of freedom, not cost. It is a matter of liberty, not price. The word `free' in free software has a similar meaning as in free speech, free people and free country and should not be confused with its other meaning associated with zero-cost. Think of free software as software which is free of encumbrances, not necessarily free of cost. Think of it as swatantra software.
 

In the beginning, all software were free. However, some software businesses concluded that they could maximize profits and gain a so-called competitive advantage by restricting the freedoms of their software customers. So they decided to take away their customers' freedom to share, freedom to help themselves and freedom to help others by withholding the software's source code and/or by making them enter into restrictive (and at times, even humiliating) legal contracts such as end user license agreements and non-disclosure agreements. This model of software business subsequently became widespread because of the perceived ease with which software businesses could make money out of this unethical business model, with complete disregard for their customers' rights. This non-free software business model lies at the heart of what we now call the proprietary software industry which has an unfortunately large majority of software users under their control.

 

Society should reject such a business model which criminalises the act of sharing and which deprives people of their fundamental right to help themselves and to help others. This can be achieved by developing and using only free software.

 

Free software frees people from the clutches of the proprietary software industry. It gives them the freedom to share, to help themselves and to help others.

 

    Please see the free software definition published by the Free Software Foundation for clear guidelines on what requirements any software should meet in order to qualify as free software. While you are there, please also spend some time going through the philosophy section for more in-depth literature on free software.
  

What is Open Source Software

      Software whose source code is published and made available to the public, enabling anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the source code without paying royalties or fees. The open source software might not be free but all free software is open source.
 

What is GNU/Linux

    The GNU Project was launched in 1984 by Richard M Stallman to develop a complete Unix-like operating system which is free software: the GNU system. (GNU is a recursive acronym for ``GNU's Not Unix''; it is pronounced "guh-NEW".) Variants of the GNU operating system, which use the kernel Linux, are now widely used; though these systems are often referred to as ``Linux'', they are more accurately called GNU/Linux systems.

 

The Gnu is the mascot of the world-wide free software movement and the GNU system is its flag-ship software suite.

 

What is our purpose

 Promoting the use of Free or Open-Source Software in the college and making the staff and students aware of thier freedom. It will also be a great oppurtunity for the students to see the source codes written by actual programmers. We also encourage students to do projects and contribute to the FLOSS. Also, the local community, schools, offices in Chengannur will be educated and given support in using FLOSS.

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Related Links:

FSF India |  SPACE 

 

 

 

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