No more than 100 yards down the road from Europe's "most bombed" hotel [1] sits Belfast's Spires Conference Centre [2], which does double duty as Northern Ireland's Presbyterian Assembly. It was to this stunning location that the faithful flocked on the eve of St. Patrick's Day 2006. The FOSS Means Business Conference [3] was the result of a north-south, cross-border initiative to bring those interested in free and open-source software together for the first time. The conference was held to host talks by two of the free software world's patron saints, Bruce Perens and Richard Stallman.

Well over 200 attendees [4] registered for the event, and easily that many people showed up on the day. The conference was kicked off and introduced by three speakers: Aidan Gough of InterTradeIreland [5], Paul McCormack of NETc and Ian Graham of Momentum NI [6].

Framed by two large stained glass windows, an impressive church pipe organ and an altar, Bruce Perens began his keynote by spreading his hands wide and uttering the words, "Dearly beloved". After the laughter died down, Perens joked further by comparing programmers to clergy, with references to "oaths of poverty", "chastity" and "celibacy" thrown in for good measure. Overall, Perens delivered an entertaining keynote, recounting tales from his days at Pixar and his first experience with collaborative software development across the Internet, apparently unbeknown to his Pixar bosses.

The highlights of Perens' talk were his discussion of the emergence of a new economic paradigm in the software world and his exposure of the myth that all software development is driven by and servicing the retail market. Most software is created in-house and is not for profit or sale, Perens stated. Microsoft was described as a "tool maker" that has enabled people to access technology, an achievement that Perens suggested be applauded. This and other subsequent observations were presented in an inspiring manner, as Perens paced back and forth across the stage declaring, among other things, that "Marketing people have no crystal ball!" and "Only 5% of your retail dollar goes to the programmer". The message was simple and clear: if so little of our retail software dollars make it to the programmer anyway, then all the talk of starving, unemployed programmers resulting from the embracing of FOSS is not a sustainable argument.

The downbeat portion of Perens' talk was his observations on software patents. After describing how the patent process is supposed to work and how it is being abused by some, the bombshell was dropped: our favorite OS "will not survive a sustained patent lawsuit". The reason this hasn't happened already, according to Perens, is because software patent law either does not exist or has not been harmonized across Europe. The message was clear: if software patent law happens, beware! To quote Perens directly: "Patent law is the killer!". According to Perens, what's required is a fight and, if necessary, sacrifices. Perens came to Belfast to issue a call to arms: resist software patent law in Europe. Get active, write letters, submit articles for publication and educate your elected representatives.

Having distractedly watched the European software patent debate rage for the last little while, I now clearly understand the evil that is software patent law. I now know that it's time to make my voice heard, in whatever way I can.

With the audience now sufficiently wound up, a quick coffee break was in order. Afterwards, the next speaker was Zaheda Bhorat from Google, a company that is a significant employer in Ireland. Bhorat supposedly was here to describe Google's relationship with the FOSS community. Instead, we got a bland presentation of what Google is ("a really great place to work") and what Google does ("hires the best, brightest people"). Such drivel was totally out of place for a conference of this type. About half way through the presentation, a slide appeared on screen declaring that Google used the BSD license for some of its code. Almost immediately, a booming North American accented voice called out, "Which BSD license are you using?" To this question, Bhorat replied, "Oh, hello Richard". When Bhorat stated that Google was using the BSD license, Richard asked again, "Which BSD license? It makes a difference." When no clear answer was forthcoming, Bhorat declared that she would find out and let Stallman know. The retort was pointed and swift: "Don't tell me, tell the public! They have a right to know." Suitably ruffled, Bhorat--thankfully--raced through the remainder of her "Google is wonderful" presentation.

Les Timms, IT Manager for Birmingham City Council [7] in the UK, spoke next. Presenting in front of 200 or so technical people appeared to be a daunting task for Timms, and he wasn't helped by some truly unreadable slides. Timms, too, fell afoul of Stallman. About half way through Timms' talk, Stallman's booming voice declared, "The system's name is not Linux, it's GNU". To this Timms offered, "Would you agree it's open source?" The voice scoffed, "No, I would never call it that!". It was a pity that Timms presentation was so bad, because his content was interesting. Timms talked about his department's recent experiences, both good and bad, with moving the city's library services to an open-source environment.

Owen Hughes, of Oracle, managed not to fall afoul of Stallman. Instead, Hughes angered the entire audience. Working from a slick presentation that was more "sales pitch" than "technical information", Hughes referred to numerous Oracle products that are "free". For each product, the standard pitch was, "I've used this. It's really cool. You should take a look at it. Download it for free from...". After a handful of comments like this, the audience could contain itself no longer. A quick question from the floor asked, "It is free as in speech or free as in beer?". Hughes wasn't sure how to answer. A voice from the back of the hall called out, "Don't use the word 'free' to describe this, use 'cost-less'". It soon became clear that what is "free" to Oracle, is not "free" to the vast majority of conference attendees. This distinction was the cue for others to ask if Oracle distributed the source code to these "free" products. Hughes looked positively shocked that someone would ask such a question of him, then meekly replied, "No, source code is not included." From the floor, Bruce Perens offered Hughes some advice, "You need to clean this up before presenting it to an audience like this again.". After this exchange, a battered and bruised Hughes quickly concluded his sales pitch, but not before describing some other really cool Oracle software that he has used and that we should all take a look at.

After lunch, Ciaran O'Riordan from the European Free Software Foundation [8] took to the stage to introduce the final speaker, Richard Stallman. Where Perens was inspiring, Stallman was enlightening, even though he began by stating that this was "not going to be a relaxing experience". Speaking in Belfast on his 53rd birthday, Stallman certainly lived up to his reputation. He's emotive, uncompromising, scathing, moral, ethical, sometimes intolerant but, above all, worth listening to.

Stallman began by painstakingly explaining what the Free Software Foundation (FSF) means by the term "free software" [9]. Once done, Stallman talked about ethics and morals. He had a number of messages: it's not a crime to share with your neighbor; you're not a "pirate" if you help your neighbor by sharing software; proprietary software vendors are trampling all over your freedom; DRM is bad news, no matter which way you look at it. His final message was freedom of choice is not what it's all about; it's about having the freedom to have control over your own life. The overriding message was resist the urge to use non-free, proprietary software. "Don't take the easy option--push back!" was the rallying cry. Throughout, Stallman presented the material in an engaging and entertaining way.

After this introduction, time was devoted to explaining the reasoning behind Stallman's insistence that our favorite OS be referred to as "GNU/Linux". Having listened, I have to admit that it's hard not to agree with him. Having dealt with the name, he then warned the community not to blindly follow those whom we perceive to be leading us. Although not named, this was a side-swipe at Linus Torvalds, who, in Stallman's opinion, is not guided by the same principles as the FSF. This--again, in Stallman's opinion--may lead to the possibility of future problems. When some of the audience reacted to these statements, with Bruce Perens chipping in, too, Stallman's response began, "You see ... it's getting pretty nasty".

Stallman warned that in 2006 the FSF has powerful, active enemies. He lamented the fact that the world's governments aren't helping and are instead pandering to the views of big business and mega-corporations. He regretted the influence North American business is trying to exert on the European Parliament, which led to the best quote of his entire talk, "Foreigners like me and Bill Gates should not have any power in Europe, and I really don't". Stallman warned against the notion of trusted computing, describing such devices as "computers you cannot program". He concluded his talk with his views, and presumably those of the FSF, on free software and employment--it'll make little difference; on free software and education--we need more of it; and the community re-write of the GPL [10]. He invited all of the attendees to get involved in this important revision, which will result in GPLv3.

With the serious stuff out of the way, Stallman grabbed a halo and cloak and delivered his (in)famous Church of Emacs, St. Ignucius homily. Although I'm a long-time user of Vi, I had to laugh at Stallman's swipes at my favorite editor. A lively question-and-answer session concluded the session, with Stallman defending some of his comments and expanding on others.

Having heard Stallman describe what the FSF believes "free software" to mean, I now totally appreciate the importance of its work. I also appreciate the freedom the GPL gives me as well as the overriding requirement we all have to fight for the freedom to run free software on our computers. According to Stallman, it's all about respect and helping one another.

Since the conference, I've read in more than one source that Torvalds and Stallman have "exchanged views" over the GPLv3 rewrite. I think it is important to realise that all communities need leaders (Torvalds) and saints (Stallman). We need to remember that often it's the saints who keep the leaders pointed in the right direction.