Press Information
- Contacting us
- Press pictures (coming soon)
- Press releases
- Terminology we use
- Free Software
- Open-source software
- Libre software
- GNU/Linux
- Linux
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Contacting us
For information about how to contact us, see the contact details on the About IFSO
page.
Also, our Press Releases should contain specific information at the
end about who should be contacted about the area concerning that press
release.
For general enquiries, Ciarán O'Riordan is usually available.
His phone number and email address are included in the contact details on the About IFSO
page (as linked above).
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Press pictures
(Coming soon.)
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Press releases
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Terminology
- Free Software
- This is the term we use for software that can be modified and
redistributed, and which comes with source code. We capitalise the
F and S to clarify that it's a proper
noun with a definition.
- Open-source software
- This is a term we do not use. It is an alternative term for Free
Software, however it is quite a confusing term and is generally
misunderstood, so we strongly advise people to avoid this term, and we
particularly ask people not to use it as a label for our work. We do Free
Software.
- Libre software
- The European Commission coined this term in 2000 as another alternate name
for Free Software. We prefer the term Free Software, because it's the term
our movement has been using since 1983, but we find this term to be
perfectly acceptable.
- GNU/Linux
- This is the name we use for the operating system that many people call
"Linux". Linux is in fact just one component of the operating
system. The largest part, and the project which worked to make the parts
into an operating system, is GNU. So we credit GNU by calling the
GNU-plus-Linux system: "GNU/Linux". We ask you to do the same.
- Linux
-
This is the name of one part of the GNU/Linux
operating system. Most people use this name as the name for
the whole system, but this is only the name of a component called
the kernel. If you are talking about the operating system, we ask
that you use the term GNU/Linux.
- Intellectual Property
-
This term lumps together patent law, copyright law, trademark law, and a
number of other laws. By over-generalising, this term makes clear
discussion impossible, so we ask that you avoid this term, and if you're
talking about copyright, say copyright, if you're talking about patents, say
patents.