Science Friday Notes from Bruce Perens

This is for my appearance on Science Friday with host Ira Flatow.

Language note. Any place where I say "Open Source" on this page, the words "Free Software" apply equally well, and vice versa. The GNU folks would prefer we call it Free Software, because they'd like you to think about freedom more. Dig into the GNU project link and Richard Stallman's bio to understand their thoughts on software and freedom.

Links to follow up on the story:

• My bio, my book series with Prentice Hall PTR Publishers, and my web site.
• Wikipedia, a Free encyclopedia being built by people all over the Internet. Are you an expert about something? Most people are. Please contribute your expertise to the Wikipedia by writing an article. You can do it right now, just by clicking on a link! I typed "Flatow" in the search box and it came up with an article on National Public Radio. There's even a page about Talk of the Nation: Science Friday, but it's blank - nobody's typed anything in yet.
• The GNU Project.
• Online book: Free as in Freedom, a Biography of Richard Stallman by Sam Williams.
• My article on the Open Source Definition
• The Open Source Initiative
• The MITRE report on the use of Open Source in U.S. Defense.
• The Cyber Security Policy & Research Institute at George Washington University.
• Debian, a GNU/Linux distribution created by a non-profit rather than a business. It's great for the technically sophisticated, still a bit hard to install and configure for others. It's what I have on my computers. Over 8000 free software packages.
• List of over 300 GNU/Linux Distributions. Companies and organizations that distribute GNU/Linux. For some reason I can't find Lindows.com on this list.
• Some projects important for the GNU/Linux desktop: OpenOffice, Mozilla, GNOME, KDE, WINE (Windows Emulator).
• Freshmeat.net, a catalog listing Open Source and other software that is developed or available online. You can search for an Open Source program to fit a particular application here.
• Article about surveys that show a Lower TCO (total cost of ownership) for GNU/Linux.
• Whitfield Diffie's commentary on Open Source security. Diffie is co-inventor (with Martin Hellman) of the public-key cryptography that is used for secure web browsing and most other cryptographic tasks.
• Is Open Source Good For The Econonmy And Your Job?, a note on economic research, this will probably be expanded into a paper.
• The Center for Open Source in Government
• Should Purchasers Discriminate Between Open Source and Proprietary Software? Rough Draft.
• Choice of Copyright and Patent Licensing for Taxpayer-Funded Research. Rough Draft.
• Open Source, Linux, and Standards. Slides from a talk I did at MIT.