"Whenever I hear people discussing GNU/Linux's prospects for becoming more popular, I'm reminded of a comment by Tommy Douglas, the social democrat who became a hero for introducing universal health care into Canada. If he could press a button and gain a million voters who did not understand his policies, he said, then he would not press that button. He meant that he was not in politics simply to be elected, but to gain supporters for his ideals -- and that he was determined not to lose sight of his long term goals while pursing short term ones.

"The Third International Forum on Free Knowledge was recently held in Maracaibo, Venezuela, bringing together many people interested in the development of free software worldwide. One reason Venezuela chose to host this event is that, in January 2006, their new free software law came into effect, which mandates that all government agencies migrate to free software over a two-year period.

"There are lots of resources available online to learn about Free and Open Source Software. If you want to understand the essence and ideals of this movement, a great start would be to read the following 4 books..."

"...In this essay I want to lay out the benefits of free software to our society, as I see them. I take the slogan of the French Revolution, "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité", and show how each of these ideals (and not just the often-mentioned Liberty) is an important part of the free software movement..."

Max Shinn is a high school student and is doing the FSF internship program. Max recounts his experience with free software and shares the story of how a school research assignment led him to discover the ideals of GNU and the free software movement. Max has been tasked with the project of reaching out and inviting the youth to get involved in free software.

"Many of us in the Free Software community have a certain level of “activist” within us, pushing those around us towards the ideals that we cherish. Ideals such as freedom. Freedom of communication, freedom of data, freedom of choice. This March 26th is Document Freedom Day, another occasion where we can band together and help promote Open Document Standards..."

"...The core ideals of free software are very strongly aligned with the core ideas of anarchism: the ideas of mutual aid and sharing combined with essential freedoms [...] At this point, I think can say that the key difference is how they treated the opposing forces. Under the anarchists, there was the widespread burning of churches and violence against Catholicism.

The Free Software philosophy is founded in the ideals of freedom, openness, and sharing. Educational institutions support the same ideals within academic freedom and the open dissemination of knowledge and information common in academia.

"Here’s what I believe to be the final, consolidated set of 2010 goals. Let me know if you think there is some big issue I missed..."