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FOSS Benefactors

Who cares about Linux? You should. Do you use Google, Yahoo or Facebook? Do you use Windows 8? Ever flown in a plane in the US? You are trusting your data and your life to Linux every day. The Linux operating system is Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) like many of the programs that run on it.

This 20th anniversary youtube story of Linux has some eye popping, validated claims. 75% of stock exchanges and 95% of supercomputers run Linux. Many TVs now use Linux internally. Every Android or iOS/Darwin phone or tablet is a unix computer.

Our berkeleylug.com group meets on the second and fourth Sundays from noon to three at Bobby G’s Pizzeria. Please join us for our meeting Sunday, Nov 25th to learn more. Happy Thanksgiving!

Free Culture

While Free Software and open source software (FOSS) are perhaps some of the oldest examples, free culture is a movement that has taken many forms. Creative Commons licenses have helped simultaneously make descriptions easier to understand and codify in detail the legal sharing of creative works like writing, pictures and video. This has been exemplified by FOSS licenses for years relating to software code. These licenses work within existing copyright law to specifically grant some rights to allow legal reuse. Text shared as blogs were an early expression of our need to share our writing quickly and easily. Video sharing sites like youtube, picture sharing sites like flickr and music sharing sites like Jamendo all provide user generated content to their users. Social media sites like twitter and facebook now serve similar purposes. The content users provide are the key attraction of social media.

Do it yourself DIY tech, hackerspaces like Noisebridge in SF, even the arab spring and occupy movements can also be seen as furthering the expression of people’s desire for transparency and a collaborative partnership using digital and other mediums. Please share some comments below.

Our berkeleylug.com group meets on the second and fourth Sundays from noon to three at Bobby G’s Pizzeria. Please join us for our meeting today.