Open source software (OSS) is both a philosophy and a process. As a philosophy it describes the intended use of software and methods for its distribution. Depending on your perspective, the concept of OSS is a relatively new idea being only five or ten years old. On the other hand, the GNU Software Project — a project advocating the distribution of “free” software — has been operational since the mid ‘80’s. Consequently, the ideas behind OSS have been around longer than you may think. When people think about OSS they often think about “free”, but the term “free” should be equated with freedom, and as such people who use “free” software should be:
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Emacs (pronounced ee-max) started off in 1976 as a series of editor macros (hence its name) written by Richard Matthew Stallman for the TECO text editor on the DEC PDP-10 minicomputer. Since becoming its own program separate from TECO, it has become extremely popular and widely used for two main reasons: first, free versions of Emacs are available for nearly every computer in existence; second, it’s completely customizable. Many text editors and word processors claim to be completely customizable. Some let you reassign each key’s purpose, and they let you assign a series of operations to be performed by one or two keystrokes or menu choices.
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What is Linux? Why is it better to choose Linux than Windows®? Why choose Mandriva over other Linux products? What’s new in Mandriva Linux 2007? Mandriva Linux 2007 product range Mandriva Linux: Web 2.0 ready! Mandriva Linux Services Mandriva Linux 2007 Services Glossary In 1983, Richard Stallman founded the GNU Project, with the goal of developing a complete Unix-like operating system composed entirely of free software. By the beginning of the 1990s, GNU had produced or collected most of the necessary components of this system except for the core component, the kernel. In 1991, the Linux kernel was created as a hobby by Finnish university student Linus Torvalds.
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