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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.
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)
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.
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.
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