By the early 1990s, Dr. Stallman and his fellow programmers had completed much of the work. They lacked only the kernel, the essential OS nucleus that provides basic services for all other parts of the operating system, to finish the GNU project. Before they could finish, Linus Torvalds added his kernel and released the operating system that has become known as Linux. By some estimates, as many as 20 million people have adopted this hot platform, which is making modest inroads into homes and small offices. At 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dr. Stallman will preach the virtues of his Free Software Foundation and its projects.
Admission is free.
Dr. Stallman graduated from Harvard in 1974 with a bachelor's degree in physics. During his college years, he also worked as a staff hacker at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. It was there in 1975 that he crafted the Emacs text editor, an essential tool for Unix-type operating systems. In 1998, the Electronic Frontier Foundation conferred its Pioneer award on both Dr. Stallman and Mr. Torvalds. Many are irritated by Dr. Stallman's boundless determination to correct the errors of sloppy computer historians and espouse the glory of the Free Software Movement.