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Taking Free Software To the Streets

Posted by Soulskill on from the spreading-the-word dept.

An anonymous reader writes "It's that time of year again; the nights are drawing in, the leaves are beginning to turn, and literally hundreds of teams of dedicated F/OSS enthusiasts from around the world are preparing to hit the streets in celebration of Software Freedom Day 2009. In an effort to increase awareness of free and open source software among the general public, SFD teams will be standing around town centers and shopping malls, holding talks at schools and universities, giving demonstrations and handing out Linux and FOSS collections for Windows on CD. With money being tight and paranoia about malware and viruses at an all-time high, the time is right to help consumers switch to the myriad of quality open source applications available. If you would like to check for an SFD team in your area and consider attending, be it to help out or simply learn more about free software for yourself, there's an interactive map to help you find your way."

3 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Keep it wacky, say goodbye to Joe public by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Standing around town centres like homeless winos. That's the problem with FOSS advocates, they keep coming up with these wacky ideas, and each time they put them into action the public sees.... err, a wacky idea, associated with FOSS.

    If you want to guarantee that the public forever sees FOSS as a fringe thing unworthy of the consideration of normal people then carry on. If you want to really promote FOSS set up a business based on FOSS and make it work and grow.

    1. Re:Keep it wacky, say goodbye to Joe public by joaommp · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I kind of agree with the initiatives in the schools, but if they start doing parades, they would better spend their time (and money) improving the quality and features of the software instead of doing parades which gather little attention. These events won't bring them closer to actually competing with commercial giants. They should do stuff like Google Summer of Code or something like that. Those I believe they it make things go forward because during a few days, people are supposed to be intensely involved into a project. Like pidgin, for instance. I love GSC because every summer, pidgin get's stabler and more features.

      Parades kind of reminds me the "gay pride parades" which end up making them look more ridiculous. The alternative would be mardi grass, but somehow I can't/won't/don't wan't to imagine a topless RMS with beads licking Linus' nipples.

      --
      Onda Technology Institute
  2. Time Bandits by malevolentjelly · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So, basically, you're going to take to the streets dead set on destroying peoples' data and wasting their time? Most people have a computing solution that works for them. If they want free software, chances are they will seek it out.

    For most people, this whole operation is going to be abstract, confusing, and really unfortunate if they make the mistake of putting the software onto their machines.

    Remember: all that silly documentation and those help manuals were written for most users. They require that sort of thing. Most open source solutions are terribly documented It's software where you need to *just know* what's going or hit the forums or wikis. That's unacceptable. If software like OpenOffice was any good whatsoever, companies would brand it and sell the media in stores.

    Adapting to a whole new software ecosystem is difficult. It's a terrible time sink that most people don't really have the social motivation for. What's so great about free software? It's free? Is Open Office better then MS Office? No? Is GIMP better than Photoshop or PSP or anything? No? Is Linux easier to use than OEM Windows or Mac? Absolutely not? Wait, why do I care about this again? What if I don't have a fanatical hatred of all things proprietary? What if I am not a freetard, but a productive member of society who needs to use the computer as a tool and not a time wasting obsession? What if I am not into "fighting the power" where "the power" is one of two large software companies that provide a framework to make my home computer usable? What if my computer were like a coffee maker for me, but for email and typing documents and browsing the web?

    In short, anyone idealistic enough to run free software is already doing so.