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Open Source CD Lending For Public Libraries?
phatlipmojo writes "Bob Kerr has taken what might well be an important step in getting open source software to the masses: donating CDs to public libraries for lending. It's a simple idea, but fraught with complications; indeed, at first, he couldn't give the CDs away to the wary libraries. Mr. Kerr dealt with the complications admirably, and has had a great deal of success getting open source CDs into lending libraries around his home country, as Mr. Kerr's howto PDF and this NewsForge article detail. What kinds of suggestions would Slashdotters make in addition to Mr. Kerr's to help make open source software on public library shelves a widespread reality?"
...just to make sure what went out is what came back in. :-)
(Admittedly I have not yet read the article he may well have covered this.)
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
I've borrowed CD's (both audio and data) and DVD's from the local library and about 50% of them have bad scratches on them.
Burning your own at the library would be the way to go.
CMDRTACO CHECK YOUR EMAIL!
I just love this idea. I can just imagine the thrill I would have had a teenager back in the late 70's to be able to go down to the library and "check out" an operating system, install it, and return it the following day. Perhaps I'm simply nostalgically emoting, but this seems like a nice idea to increase the grass roots of open source generally.
www.enthea.org
I guess it's time to add some trojans to CD's and give them to the library.
Why stop at libraries? It doesn't cost much to put up little postcards in newsagents/corner shops etc, and it's probably free at libraries. Just a little note with an email address stating that you'll send out the CDs in the post if interested parties email you with their postal address.
Good idea. Provide a Linux-based machine with CD copying disabled, but with the ability to burn any of a number of on-disk ISO images. Stuff like KNOPPIX and Debian and the Gutenburg project. And anything else organizations feel like providing.
You'd have to disable copying because the music and video industry wouldn't stand for it. They'll still send C&D letters even without copying enabled, but it would be easy to prove their worries groundless.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
A lot of software are large downloads, which people without broadband connections for whatever reason (for example, living in the middle of nowhere, like me) can't reasonably download. It would be much easier and faster to get software from somewhere, already downloaded.
I was checking around the stacks at my local library and saw that they had a Learn Linux book (Yah!) but the installation CD was for RedHat 6.2 (Uhoh..) I was very tempted to slip a recent install into the book along with a card explaining it.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
I'm surprised that more libraries don't have a library of CDs of various Linux distros and larger open source packages. I also wonder if some chariable OSS-minded soul could donate a pre-configured tighty locked low-end PC and CD-burner to a local library. With used PCs being so cheap, a basic setup (with a 100 GB IDE HD) would be under $200. Either the donor or librarians could make a set of for-checkout CDs or library patrons could make their own CD bundles (paying a nominal fee for media or bringing in their own media).
Do we need an open source project to create a simple locked linux library distro and easy-to-use CD maker?
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
From the article:
..."
1 /rights_and_enti.html
On the CD I donated, I also included the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It states, in Article 26, "Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free at least in the elementary and fundamental stages
I'm a libertarian, so I don't agree with this, at least as worded.
A "right" is something that you must always be granted, no matter what. If you look at the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution, you will find they are rights to be left alone: the right to free speech (no one can silence you), the right to not have to testify against yourself, etc. These are "negative" rights, your right to be left alone. (You will notice a right to own and carry weapons, but no mention of where you will get them; no one has any obligation to provide them to you.)
If you have a "right" to education, where does it come from? Do you have a right to grab a teacher and make that teacher teach you? How does your "right" to education compare with a teacher's right to decide what he or she wants to do? What happens if not enough people choose to be teachers -- do we need to force some people to be teachers to guarantee that there are enough teachers for everyone?
I would agree with wording that says "Education is important, and society should make education a priority." I'd even agree with a right to own educational materials. But I don't see how you can make a "right" to education really work, unless the word "right" doesn't mean what I think it does.
Here's a good essay about this:
http://libertarian.typepad.com/independent/2003/1
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
It'd also be extremely easy to create a 40 GB hard disk ISO image partitioned exactly so it's one CD ISO per partition, and a simple Linux shell with some sort of point and click interface so that from library to library the offering would be standardized.
Libraries could sell single blank CD-Rs for $2-3, a suitable markup for having them right where you need them and because a library should be able to do a little fundraising, but patrons should be invited to bring in their own CD-Rs.
There should be some sort of upgrade functionality so that outdated releases are refreshed, and I think the best way to do that is for the project maintainers to send out a specifically designed CD that would authenticate itself to the OS, and proceed to load in the new ISO in the place of the old one. Sending out a release of 1,000 or so CDs is expensive, but it's a whole lot cheaper and faster than asking some rural libraies to use their dial-up connection. (Those places are the most important, if the library can't afford broadband, nobody in the area can. Open source software would be really useful in those places...)
By my estimation, all that really is needed is a low-end computer with a CD-R (no need for RW) drive and a monitor and mouse (no need for a keyboard). Such a setup likely could be mass produced for about $250-$300 a box...
OSS doesn't have AOL's goal of using their "pave the earth" campaign to make the continental US sink into the oceans of the weight of the AOL disks. So I would say it is not likely to happen with OSS.
OSS isn't trying to sell something. No profit is being made from these disks. In fact, it costs someone to make these disks. Just as it costs AOL, but to AOL, it is a minor expense against profits made from subscriptions generated by the disks.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Quite frankly, with open source material and high speed connections at many libraries, I doubt that trying to convince them to find a way to catalog and loan out open source software is the way to go. Some better steps would be to get rid of, or at least repair, the annoying software they install on their systems so that you could at least download files to a pen drive or hard drive attached to the USB port. Another nice addition would be a CD writer or two in the library (these things are so cheap now they are often "free after rebate" items, certainly a public library could afford a couple). They might even make a modest profit if they also offered blank media at a small cost. This could encourage people to get the open source sofware right for them, not old copies of dated stuff on the shelfs or worse stuck away in a drawer somewhere or "lost".
Of course, I'm not sure that very many people who would use the public library as a source of open source software would not have the high speed access already, but if the original claim is that open source software should be available through the library I think there are better ways to go than to convince them to put a few CD's in their collection.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
My dad could install and use Windows, but he could not install use Linux (that would be any distribution you care to name).
Bullshit, troll. My dad can't install Windows, Linux, OS X, or any other system you care to throw out. He can, however, click links and type. Since that's all you need to be able to do browse the web and send email (which is all he needs a computer for) he can use ANY properly configured systems.
What sort of advanced work does your father, the average computer user, do on a computer that would require him to use Windows, anyway? I'm dying for this answer, since logging on, browsing the web, and sending email is, for all intents and purposes, exactly the same on all the systems.
This isn't just an assumption - I have weaned my parents slowly off Windows and onto Linux, and they don't know the difference, or care. So why? I don't have to troubleshoot their machine nearly as much, because things just work the way I set them up the first time.
Maybe, as you say, Linux simply isn't ready for the desktop or the unclued user, but that only works under the assumption that the Office monopoly must be maintained, and the unclued user is setting the entire machine up themselves (and how likely is that for the average Windows user, again?) A configured Linux box is just as easy to use as a configured Windows machine.
Damn, I ranted back to a troll. You win, you liar.
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
http://theopencd.sunsite.dk/ Seems like an appropriate 'distribution' for libraries
Most people don't even know what an operating system -- hell, don't even know what "Windows" is.
A service like this would be of very little appeal and I would imagine the machine hosting this service would start gathering dust and would be used only once every few months.
Basically, it's a waste of time -- the effort would be better spent getting Linux into schools and such.
"The problem with the whole digital revolution is that it allows us to do things on a scale simply never possible before. Sure, it was technically illegal to dub tapes and give them to your friends, or to photocopy a recipe and send it to your mother, but it would never be worth prosecuting simply because of the difficulty in finding people, and the cost of prosecution for such a small return."
The whole digital revolution has also tested the mettle of ethics. When it's easy to be ethical, then people will be ethical. When it's easy to be unethical, then the moral and ethical bonds of a society are tested, and only the strongest will survive that test.
The US, and the world are being tested.