Wednesday, May 21, 2014

WordPress is Free Software


WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and a content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL, which runs on a web hosting service.[5] Features include a plugin architecture and a template system. WordPress is used by more than 22.0% of the top 10 million websites as of August 2013[update].[6] WordPress is the most popular blogging system in use on the Web,[7] at more than 60 million websites.[8]
It was first released on May 27, 2003, by its founders, Matt Mullenweg[1] and Mike Little,[9] as a fork of b2/cafelog. As of February 19, 2014, version 3.8 had been downloaded more than 20 million times.[10] The license under which WordPress software is released is the GPLv2 (or later) from the Free Software Foundation.[11]
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, which promotes the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software,[3] with the organization's preference for software being distributed under copyleft ("share alike") terms,[4] such as with its own GNU General Public License.[5] The FSF was incorporated in Massachusetts, USA, where it is also based.[6]
From its founding until the mid-1990s, FSF's funds were mostly used to employ software developers to write free software for the GNU Project. Since the mid-1990s, the FSF's employees and volunteers have mostly worked on legal and structural issues for the free software movement and the free software community.
Consistent with its goals, only free software is used on FSF's computers
Copyleft (a play on the word copyright) is the practice of using copyright law to offer the right to distribute copies and modified versions of a work and requiring that the same rights be preserved in modified versions of the work. In other words, copyleft is a general method for making a creative work as freely available to be modified, and requiring all modified and extended versions of the creative work to be free as well.[1]
Copyleft is a form of and can be used to maintain copyright conditions for works such as computer software, documents, and art. In general, copyright law is used by an author to prohibit recipients from reproducing, adapting, or distributing copies of the work. In contrast, under copyleft, an author may give every person who receives a copy of a work permission to reproduce, adapt or distribute it and require that any resulting copies or adaptations are also bound by the same licensing agreement.
Copyleft licenses (for software) require that information necessary for reproducing and modifying the work must be made available to recipients of the executable. The source code files will usually contain a copy of the license terms and acknowledge the author(s).
Copyleft type licenses are a novel use of existing copyright law to ensure a work remains freely available. The GNU General Public License, originally written by Richard Stallman, was the first copyleft license to see extensive use, and continues to dominate the licensing of copylefted software. Creative Commons, a non-profit organization founded by Lawrence Lessig, provides a similar license provision condition called ShareAlike.

Free Software data compiled verbatim from Wikipedia
the free encyclopedia

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Cinco de Mayo



T

his Mexican-American Holiday honors freedom and democracy in early America commemorating the first years of the American Civil War where the Mexican Army was victorious over the French Army on May 5, 1862 under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin.

Napoleon III of France instigated a free trade policy exploiting the friendly Mexican Government to finance his empire with silver mined in Mexico. He built a coalition with Britain and Spain to exclusion of the U.S.

The Civil War lasted from April 12, 1861 – May 10, 1865; which resulted in the abolition of slavery, the dissolution of the confederacy and the preservation of territorial integrity.

Originating in the State of Puebla, Mexico, this day is known as El Dia de la Batalla de Cinco de Mayo, a day of pride which is now celebrated around the world.