Sam Varghese has been writing for iTWire since 2006, a year after the site came into existence. For nearly a decade thereafter, he wrote mostly about free and open source software, based on his own use of this genre of software. Since May 2016, he has been writing across many areas of technology. He has been a journalist for nearly 40 years in India (Indian Express and Deccan Herald), the UAE (Khaleej Times) and Australia (Daily Commercial News (now defunct) and The Age). His personal blog is titled Irregular Expression.
How do you make money from software when you give away the source? That's a good question - which these days has as many answers as the number who have found a business model that permits them to live off what they code.
The phenomenal growth in the use of Linux in the embedded market means that many people use and sell the kernel without knowing they are doing so. Others are aware, but choose to stay quiet, knowing that they are, in one way or another, not keeping to the terms of the licence under which Linux is published.
It's a long way from the cold boulevards of Paris to the searing heat of Brisbane but Stefano Zacchiroli has spent the 20-odd hours needed to make the trip because he wants to tell people in the FOSS community about the vital role that the Debian GNU/Linux Project still has to play.