On 8/4/07, Pia Waugh <pia@softwarefreedomday.org> wrote:
If teams want to hand out additional schwag on top of what we are able to provide, that is not only fine, it is encouraged! :) Teams that can get local support from universities, schools, businesses and Government will not only have a great event, but will also create awareness and education about software freedom right throughout their community. After all, freedom isn't just for geeks, right? ;)
That was my point -- whether we had the ability to hand out software other than what we acquired from We would highly
recommend you consider the needs of the users you hand the software out to.
Oh, understood. Again, this was brought up at an organizational meeting. I am an Xubuntu user, a very happy one at that (although I've tried other distros and have liked them, including gNewSense). We are hoping to have some *buntu disks available, as part of what we would like to offer. Needless to say, I wouldn't start off someone with, like, Crux, but again my colleague wants to emphasize free software. We have chosen to provide teams with some Ubuntu CDs (and The Open CD) even
though Ubuntu contains some proprietary drivers, because there needs to be a practical element as well as an education element. I personally believe that if you give software to a complete newbie that will not work on their laptop due to proprietary hardware, most people will simply say "this free software stuff doesn't work". Hand out the 100% free distros along side something that is practical and easy for new users so they can get excited and get on the path to freedom :)
I often think back to how I got into GNU/Linux. My background is in systems administration and I started using Debian about 9 years ago. I loved it as a technical person because of the technical superiority over Windows. It took me a few years to really understand the freedom and community aspects, so it would be arrogant of me to expect complete newbies to totally understand everything from the start. Be kind to your newbie communities, invite them in to understanding how this affects them and why software freedom is important.
I wrote a short article about how software freedom can affect our basic human rights. This message can be a powerful first step for people new to this world in understanding how technology affects them. If they buy into the concepts, it is more likely they'll buy into FOSS.
Read it -- thought it was great! We'll be copying this and having it available, if that's okay. Larry Cafiero FOSS San Lorenzo Valley Felton, California, U.S.A.