SVLUG meeting and RMS

[Joey Hess]

If you've never been to thye Coffeenet internet Cafe in San Fransicco,
you've missed out on a wonderful linux experience. There's free internet
access on every table via Linux Boxes running redhat, and they make good
fruit smoothies too. I can't speak on their coffee as I don't drink it.

Where's all this going? Well the back room of the Coffeenet was
extra-special this evening, because RMS was there. I greatly enjoeyed
meeting him and watching him play a flute to a parrot, read email in emacs
on his old, incredibly battered toshiba laptop with a Happy Hacking
keyboard, and otherwise carry on. Eventually we dragged RMS away from his
email and everyone piled into cars and we took off for Mountain View. I
didn't get to ride with RMS, oh well..

Arriving at the SVLUG meeting about half an hour late, RMS talked about his
early experiences at the MIT Media Lab, and the free software lifestyle
there, and progressed on through the forming of the GNU project and the FSF.
Of course, he talked about why Linux should be called GNU/Linux, and about
why he dislikes the term Open Source. If you're familair with RMS and what
he stands for, there were no suprises here, but listening to him talk can
make the concept of free software clearer even to people who already thought
they knew all about it.

In the Q&A period, a Bay Area Debian plant in the audience asked a leading
question about debian, and RMS said that:
  * Debian is the linux distribution he reccommends.
  * FSF may start selling debian CD's.

I met a bunch of people on this list, I've forgotten all your names because
I'm horrible at keeping names straight at first, but I know your faces now
and look forward to seeing you again. I expect we'll also be getting some
new people on the list. One man I spoke with is planning to install debian
as a bunch of i386 X terminals in a school in Oakland.

RMS also song the free software song to us. And he's added a couple of
verses! (And a hard drive platter halo.) I didn't get my laptop blessed by
Saint RMS, because I must confess to having quake on it. :-)

And hey, RMS complimented me on my Debian T-shirt. :-)

-- 
see shy jo