[SFD-discuss] What disk to burn

[Pia Waugh]

Hi Larry,

<quote who="Larry Cafiero">

> This is new to me (because I'm new to FOSS), but I think celebrating this
> day is an outstanding idea. Thanks to all who are putting it together.

And thank you for helping take freedom global :)

> I'm gathering from Janet's e-mail that we are allowed to burn our own CDs,
> but I'll ask just to be sure: Are we allowed, enabled, encouraged, etc., to
> assemble our own FOSS CDs to distribute at the event as well? Our "greatest
> hits" or "top 10" as it were?

Just to be clear on this, Software Freedom International see our role as
providing a global point of collaboration and cohesiveness for the event,
providing a vision and code of conduct to keep the event positive, providing
positive messaging about why software freedom is important, and supporting
teams around the world to take software freedom to their local communities
in whichever way they deem to be most appropriate. We also work on getting
support behind the event as a whole, and encouraging teams all around the
world to participate.

  http://softwarefreedomday.org/CodeOfConduct

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? ;)

> The reason I ask is that one of our organizers brought up having a 100%
> truly free (as in freedom, moreso than free beer) disk containing distros,
> like gNewSense, that do not include any proprietary software.

If you want to do that, it is totally your perogative. We would highly
recommend you consider the needs of the users you hand the software out to.
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.

  http://softwarefreedomday.org/SoftwareFreedom

Anyway, just thought that might be useful :)

Cheers,
Pia
 
-- 
Software Freedom Day 2007                   http://softwarefreedomday.org/