TRIANGLE LINUX USERS GROUP Competitors

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on October 4th, 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to distribute and modify computer software without restriction. The FSF is incorporated in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in. It depends on the liberties delivered by open source licenses. The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is the authority that defines Open Source, recognized globally by individuals, companies, and by public institutions. One of our most important activities is as a standards body, maintaining the Open Source Definition for the good of the community. The Open Source Initiative Approved License trademark and program creates a nexus of trust around which developers, users, corporations and governments can organize open-source cooperation.

Gentoo is a free operating system based on Linux that can be automatically optimized and customized for just about any application or need. Extreme configurability, performance, and a top-notch user and developer community are all hallmarks of the Gentoo experience. Thanks to a technology called Portage, Gentoo can become an ideal secure server, development workstation, professional desktop, gaming system, embedded solution, or something else—whatever you need it to be. Because of its near-unlimited adaptability, we call Gentoo a metadistribution. Of course, Gentoo is more than just software. It is also a community around the distribution. Gentoo benefits from around 250 developers and thousands of users, many of which are experts in their fields. The distribution project provides the means for the users to enjoy Gentoo: documentation, infrastructure, release engineering, software porting, quality assurance, security followup, hardening, and more. To advise and help Gentoo's global development, a 7-member council is elected on a yearly basis which decides on global issues, policies, and advancements in the Gentoo project.