April is an association for the promotion of
free software in the French-speaking world. Since its inception in 1996, April has maintained a close relationship with the
Free Software Foundation, establishing a working group to undertake a French-language exposition of the
GNU project's
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
.
The group's name is an acronym standing for ''Association pour la Promotion et la Recherche en Informatique Libre'' (meaning ''Association for the Promotion and Study of Free Computing''). Regarding the name, the French term ''libre'' always means "
free-as-in-freedom
The English adjective ''free'' is commonly used in one of two meanings: "at no monetary cost" (''gratis'') and "with little or no restriction" (''libre''). This ambiguity of ''free'' can cause issues where the distinction is important, as it ...
" and never "
free-as-in-beer".
Membership is open to both physical persons and institutions. Annual dues for individuals are 10 euro. Dues for institutional memberships are assessed on a sliding scale according to size, total sales, or budget as appropriate.
Important dates
* November 1998: April welcomes
Richard Stallman at its conference at Université Paris 8 for the first time.
* April 2001: Frédéric Couchet, Loïc Dachary and Raphaël Rousseau establish FSF France by modifying
Gna.org
Gna! was a centralized location where software developers could develop, distribute and maintain free software. The service was shut down in 2017 after 13 years in service for dozens of software projects and millions of downloads served.
Since Ma ...
.
* June 2009: The association's enlistment reaches 5000 members.
April's successful membership drive (3 June 2009)
Retrieved 17 January 2013
References
April's website
Free and open-source software organizations
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