JAIPUR: Software freedom activist Richard Mathew Stallman today called for using “free licensing softwares” to avoid piracy of proprietary items, while launching an awareness campaign here.

“License free or open source software respects freedom. It does not relate with its price as one can use it with complete freedom by having control on its programmes,” he said at a conference organised by Rajasthan Information Technology Organisation (RITO).

The 61-year-old American activist, known for launching the GNU project (a free software, mass collaboration project) stated that using license free software makes users capable of knowing what the program really does, what have to be changed and what they really want to do with the software.

In server organization in first semester of 2011 under free software, 17.5 per cent part of the Linux server form the total revenue, he said.

More than 90 per cent of supercomputing in the world is performed on open source. Many consumer products are working on open source. Operating systems of Apple products are also taken from open source, Stallman said.

SOURCE: economictimes.indiatimes.com