info-press
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[GNU/FSF Press] Richard Stallman Receives Prestigious 2001 Takeda Award


From: Bradley M. Kuhn
Subject: [GNU/FSF Press] Richard Stallman Receives Prestigious 2001 Takeda Award
Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 09:55:46 -0500
User-agent: Mutt/1.3.24i

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Free Software Foundation
               Bradley M. Kuhn <address@hidden>
               Phone: +1-617-542-5942


     Richard Stallman Receives Prestigious 2001 Takeda Award


Tokyo, Japan - Monday, December 2, 2001 - The Takeda Foundation of Japan
has named Richard M. Stallman, president of the Free Software Foundation
and founder of the GNU project, as co-recipient of the 2001 Takeda Award.
As part of this honor, Stallman will receive a monetary award of
approximately 33 million yen (currently about US$268,000).

Dr. Stallman receives this honor for launching the Free Software Movement
and leading the development of the GNU operating system.  GNU, started by
Stallman in 1984, is a completely Free Software operating system: it gives
users the freedom to copy, share, modify and redistribute the software.
The Free Software Movement, started along with GNU, advocates and defends
these freedoms worldwide.

Stallman shares the full 2001 Takeda award of 100 million yen with two
other recipients.  Ken Sakamura receives the award for developing and
promoting the TRON architecture, a real-time operating system specification
for embedded systems.  Linus Torvalds is honored for his work on the
operating system kernel called Linux, which is normally used together with
GNU.  The GNU/Linux system, which combines GNU and Linux, has over 20
million users worldwide.

The Takeda foundation will bestow this year's award in a ceremony in Tokyo
on December 4th.  Stallman will attend the event, and speak about his work
in the Free Software Movement.

In 1990, Stallman was awarded a $240,000 fellowship by the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.  As with the MacArthur award, Stallman
will invest the Takeda award to pay his future living expenses, so that he
can work full time promoting software freedom and coordinating the GNU
project.  Stallman receives no salary nor travel expenses from the FSF and
assumes a modest living style to facilitate his continued work championing
the cause of free software.


About GNU:

GNU is a Free Software Unix-like operating system.  Development of GNU
began in 1984.  http://www.gnu.org/gnu/the-gnu-project.html gives
more information about GNU and its history.

GNU/Linux is the integrated combination of the GNU operating system with
the kernel, Linux, written by Linus Torvalds in 1991.

Some people call the GNU/Linux system "Linux", but this misnomer leads to
confusion (people cannot tell whether you mean the whole system or the
kernel, one part), and spreads an inaccurate picture of how, when and
where the system was developed.  Making a consistent distinction between
GNU/Linux, the whole operating system, and Linux, the kernel, is the best
way to clear up the confusion.  See
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html for more explanation.


About the Free Software Foundation:

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute
computer programs.  The FSF promotes the development and use of Free (as
in freedom) Software - particularly the GNU operating system and its
GNU/Linux variants - and Free Documentation for Free Software.  The FSF
also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of
freedom in the use of software.  Their web site, located at
http://www.fsf.org, is an important source of information about GNU/Linux.
They are headquartered in Boston, MA, USA.

Attachment: pgpbV94rduHNq.pgp
Description: PGP signature


reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]