FreeSoftware

Free Software Talk by Abhas - 7 June 2008
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The talk was presented by Abhas Abhinav, CEO, Deeproot Linux, a free software based
company in Bangalore.

For a person who is new to free software movement, the talk may seem philosophical
at times. However, the very presenter being a successful entrepreneur already
in free software business, held the interest levels intact. The initial slides
talk about the background of free software, why free software and what free software
is all about. Even though one of the listeners wanted to jump to knowing about business
ideas using free software, Abhas's commitment to educate on principles of free software
business first was appreciable.

My idea on attending this talk too was about knowing at least handful of business
ideas using free software. But as the presentation goes by one could realize that
the session's objective was to educate on the idea of free software business and
the model of doing free software business and not about discussing business ideas
as such. May be it was only my expectation that was wrong.
The session helped us realize how we are restricting our freedom and
hence our knowledge in this proprietary software business model.

Abhas was candid about making us realize how much $$$ he may lose if someone
adopts his idea and sells an improved product next door. But this is what the free
software principle is all about. To be a successful entrepreneur in this, he
emphasized the importance of 'Value' that you attach to your product.
He says, its the value that you provide in terms of support and services for your product
which differentiates between you and your competitors.

It may be true that proprietary software business can make you more rich than your
FSB counterpart. But the knowledge you spread around by distributing your source
and helping the community to build upon that is a greater achievement. This liberation
of the mind is what is essential to be a committed free software follower and a FSB
Entrepreneur as well. Hence they say, "Free software is not about price but about
freedom. Think 'Free' as in free speech and not free beer".

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