Richard Stallman arrives in Moscow in February-March

The founder of the modern concept of free software, the GNU project, the Free Software Foundation and the Program Freedom League, the legendary Richard Stallman , will arrive in Moscow. He has already given preliminary consent and promised to find time for the visit in late February - early March 2008. Most likely, the visit will last five to six days. In terms of the visit - meetings with the public, supporters of the ACT, students, officials, etc. Perhaps Stallman will even speak at the State Duma, as he arrives at the invitation of Deputy Viktor Alksnis.

The initiative to invite Stallman to Moscow was made by Vasily Leonov, one of the Russian open source activists, who lived in the US for a long time and was personally acquainted with Richard Stallman. Vasily will be responsible for organizing the visit, so you can contact him with specific proposals right now.

“For 15 years of participation in the Linux community (my code is in the core of each copy of Linux), I had a good understanding of formal and informal approaches, numerous business contacts in the USA, where I lived for several years in the 90s,” writes Vasily Leonov . - From a purely utilitarian side, the market sector captured by MS with few allies is very large and everyone who takes part in its fair redistribution will not regret it. Both at the level of the individual and the public, as well as the moral and psychological, and certainly the state. Russia as a whole, for example. On the objective side, this redistribution is inevitable, since there is nothing to argue against the substantial savings in licensing in the long term.

It might be worthwhile to organize an international forum on the theme “For Free Software and Information Security of Russia”. Invite Stallman - for a long time he was not in Russia, for a long time I did not see him. He gladly takes part in public life, some criticize him for it, but after his contribution he can already do what he wants and how he wants. A very strong personality, an unconditional supporter of true freedom and justice. "