The ProcessMaker developers meet with Richard Stallman

Since switching to the GNU Affero General Public License 3 last year, ProcessMaker has tried to promote the idea that its software should be “free” as in “freedom”.  This message of freedom in software was inspired by the visionary Richard Stallman, who first founded the GNU operating system back in 1984 and has been fighting for the digital rights of users ever since.

The developers of ProcessMaker have long admired Stallman, or “RMS” as he commonly known in the community, not only for his technical prowess in single-handedly coding EMACS, GCC, GDB, Bison, and many of command-line tools found in the GNU toolkit, but more importantly for his trenchant insistence that users should have four fundamental freedoms to (0) use, (1) study and modify, (2) share and (3) share modified versions of  software. RMS wrote the General Public License to guarantee that we all would enjoy these freedoms.

In the last quarter century, the ideas of Stallman as embodied in the GPL have transformed the tech industry. Today over 65% of free/libre/open source software projects use the GPL license and almost every major tech company (including Microsoft) releases some code under an “open source”, “shared source” o “community source” license which is derived in part from provisions in the GPL. Between GNU/Linux and BSD in servers and GNU/Linux and Symbian in mobile devices, free software is posed to dominate the future of computing as it moves toward the cloud and wireless networking on netbooks, smartphones and mobile internet devices.

ProcessMaker literally owes its existence to the free software which makes it possible: namely PHP, Apache and MySQL. Therefore it was a great honor for Colosa, the company which develops ProcessMaker, to be an official sponsor of Richard Stallman’s visit to Bolivia. Despite his busy schedule and his many commitments, RMS makes a point to visit even tiny countries like Bolivia to promote his message of freedom. His dedication to the cause is inspiring, especially to those of us who try to ethically earn a living developing software. We were happy to help pay for the price of his plane ticket, so RMS could give three speeches in Bolivia.

It was an even greater pleasure to sit down with RMS and discuss the state of free software or “software libre” in Bolivia. RMS graciously accepted our invitation to eat a Bolivian lunch with us on Monday. In his inimitable style, RMS entertained us with his jokes. Although RMS is best known for his prowess at “hacking” with computer languages, we discovered that RMS’s genious extends to “hacking” with human languages as well.  Even speaking in Spanish, Stallman exhibited his talents. When asked what type of juice he would like to drink, Stallman rejected the maracuya and papaya as containing too much acid, but then with a twinkle in his eye asked if there was any “jugo de-mora”? In Spanish “jugo de mora” means “blackberry juice”, but “jugo demora” means “juice running late”. When asking for the bathroom Stallman joked that there were two types of toilets in Bolivia: the large ones which declared “¡Poto sí!” (Derriere yes!) and the small ones which said “¡Poto no!” (Derriere no!). We all got a big laugh at how “Potosí”, one of the most famous bolivian cities, could be creatively broken into the words for “derriere” and “yes” in Spanish.

On a more serious note, we discussed with Stallman how to reach more youth and inspire them to get involved in computer programming in Bolivia. Stallman shared his own experiences about how he started writing programs with pen and paper as a 10-year-old child who was deeply fascinating by the computers of the early 60s. He never dreamed of being able to touch the multi-million dollar machines of the day, but he managed to obtain the technical manuals to two computers and began writing programs in assembly. Stallman stressed that the free software movement needed to reach out to talented youth like him with an interest in computers and try to expose them to free software at an early age. He noted that he didn’t have much time to talk to school teachers who might have contact with talented youth, but he encouraged others to preach the message of free software to educators–they are in the unique position to direct talented youth toward free software when exploring their passion for technology.

We also discussed what parts of the free software message resonated with Bolivian audiences. In response to our observations about the technological independence afforded by free software, Stallman noted that it fits well with the theme of “decolonization” which is espoused by the current Bolivian government. It was partially for this reason that Stallman’s talks were advertised in Bolivia under the banner of “Software libre and the Descolonización digital” (Free Software and Digital Decolonization).

We observed that free software is attractive to Bolivian users because it offers the possibility of adapting the code to Andean indigenous cultures. For instance, a Quechua graphics designer is currently creating an Andean version of TuxType–a fun game to teach kids typing. She has replaced the graphics of pinguins and space cadets in the outer galaxy with condors and scenes from the Andes. Stallman encouraged the Bolivian free software community to talk publicly about how the fundamental freedoms granted by the GPL make possible the cultural adaption of software for Quechua and Aymara speakers.

We went on to discuss whether “Linux” was better for the environment since it generally requires less memory and processing power to run compared to proprietary software. (The lower hardware requirements can also help extend the useful life of hardware and reduce the importation of electronics which cause trade imbalances in Third World countries.) Stallman corrected our use of the term “Linux” and informed us that the operating system was properly termed “GNU/Linux“, since Linux is only the kernel and proper credit should be given to all the people who worked on the larger GNU system which functions on top of the kernel.

As to the question of whether GNU/Linux was better for the environment, Stallman observed that verifiable tests were needed to see how much memory and CPU usage were used for various basic tasks on different operating systems.  He questioned whether the extra resources used in the move from the command line to graphical user interfaces was a one time increase or whether the required resources would keep increasing in the future. We opined that the extra memory and CPU usage would probably not plateau, but would keep increasing at a steady rate.  Nonetheless, GNU/Linux distros like Debian, Red Hat and Ubuntu still require less memory than Microsoft Windows.  Stallman hoped that someone (hint!, hint!) would conduct the verifiable tests so that the argument could be used in Free Software Foundation literature.

The conversation moved onto the ways the Bolivian Ministry of Education had tried (and thus-far failed) to promote the use of GNU/Linux in schools and in community telecenters. The Ministry of Education financed the creation of a custom GNU/Linux distribution to be installed in educational facilities, but it failed to plan for proper support and testing and didn’t even check to see whether the distribution would work on the existing hardware. After the initial installation, most educational facilities encountered so many technical problems that they eventually uninstalled GNU/Linux and replaced it with Windows. Stallman noted that a successful migration to GNU/Linux often requires the acquisition of compatible hardware–a detail which was entirely overlooked in Bolivia.

All in all, the conversation was very interesting for all involved, but Stallman was pressed to keep up with his email, so he pulled out his famous Lemote Yeeloong laptop, a small-screen portable whose entire specs and firmware code are available for free download on the internet.  The appearance of the legendary device provoked a rumination about what this new type of hardware should be termed. Reacting to our use of the term “free hardware”, Stallman observed that it wasn’t really “free” in the same way as software since only companies with access to sophisticated equipment have the ability to create the hardware from the specs. Perhaps in 20 years Stallman mused that the average person would be able to create hardware from the specs, but at the current time it wasn’t in the same category as free software from the point of view of the user. Even thought hardware increasingly is developed as software with Verilog and other hardware description languages, Stallman argued that that fact didn’t make much difference for the average user of the hardware. Therefore, he suggested that we use the term “hardware with published specifications”–certainly a mouthful compared to “free hardware” (or the taboo term “open hardware“), but useful for provoking thought about the future of hardware development.

After the lunch, Stallman graciously took the time to pose for a picture with the ProcessMaker developers. It is a photo which all of us at Colosa will treasure for many years to come. For all of us, it was a great honor to be given the chance to share a repast and exchange ideas with the father of the free software movement.