[FSUG-Bangalore] Abhas - Free Soft @ Cisco - Blr

[Senthil Sundaram (sensunda)]

Hi All,
 
We had what is called a 'Nerd Lunch' session at Cisco.  About 40-50
engineers were there and the session was recorded on video by
cisco..also folks joined over the phone.  Jotted down some interesting
aspects...abhas do add stuff about what u felt is interesting and upload
the photos if u get a chance.
 
Some of them wrote back wanting to start a interest group at Cisco . We
will do this soon..
 
-S
 
 
Interesting aspects .. which came out in the discussion / What the
regular software crowd thinks about us
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- Cisco is a very proprietary software  company - however - is looking
at a lot of free software for its small and medium routers - for
inevitable reasons : both technical and cost 
 
- There are lot of folks @ cisco who use a lot of free software - gdb -
gcc - emacs - firefox - there are many initiatives to use gnu-linux
desktops and so on - and folks have a lot of respect for free software -
for its technical qualities - rather than the freedom foundation - which
is something we were trying to discuss in the session...
 
- Cisco is very careful about GPLv3 and this was brought up multiple
times in the disucssion by the hosts - on how develpers need to be very
careful when trying to bring in - COOL GPLv3 FREE SOFTWARE 
 
- the aspect of RESPECTING users freedom gives one a lot of respect  -
however giving away code to build another persons business - is looked
at as SACRIFICE . The interesting aspect is to have a live business
example to show that this is COOL and works. 
 
-Abhas said that 95% of folks download their software for free : Some
body asked - ARE YOU DOING SOCIAL SERVICE or BUSINESS - abhas had to
explain of how - this can be good business - how this can be good ethics
- how this can be good technically and so on 
 
- One more point which came up at Cisco as well as Chirst : Free
software is a smart conspiracy to make money !! You make difficult
software - Then you charge a lot for it like - REDHAT - so you guys
speak about all freedom - but behind it - it is all MONEY !! 
 
Though  one can understand this comes from a not very clear
understanding - however people seem to suspect when  BIG CAPITAL and
FREE SOFTWARE work together - KNOWLEDGE CAN BE FREER THAN NOW with FREE
SOFTWARE  - BUT CAN IT BE REALLY FREE when working with BIG CAPITAL
seems to be a question folks are asking...
 
- GNU/LINUX Desktops : "GNU/Linux is still not good as Windows"  - I
thing this comes from user habbits - I see a lot of fresh software
engineers - unable to change from this addiction 
 
- Free Software vs Open Source : was a question too
 
 
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Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 for Nerdlunch on "Free/Open Source Software"

 Speaker           -           Mr. Abhas Abhinav, Deeproot Linux

Date                 -           30th July, 2008 , Time
-           11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Location            -           Bangalore Cisco Campus (Cessna Business
Park)

Abstract            -           

The presentation will focus upon the following issues:

  * What is Free / Open Source Software?

 * What are the guiding values of the Free Software movement?

 * Why is Freedom good for software?

 * Who's using Free Software today: A case for users and developer's?

 * The Indian Free / Open Source Software scenario

 * Getting involved with the Free Software movement: as a user,
developer, contributor, advocate, business

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