Slashdot Mirror


Taking Free Software To the Streets

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."

4 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Time Bandits by malevolentjelly · · Score: 0, Troll

    This isn't the sort of attack that would form a botnet.

    The time you would waste learning Unix would be so excessive that even a directed assault on your home machine by a team of chinese hackers (which is likely what would exploit this sort of case) resulting in reinstall would cost less time.

    Time is the only real valuable resource.

  2. Re:ease if installation of FOSS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    That doesn't change the fact that installing Ubuntu will FORMAT THE FUCKING DRIVE. You gigantic douchebag.

    You know, it's hard to take this level of trolling seriously, since anybody with even a passing familiarity with Ubuntu knows, the installer defaults to partitioning your drive so that you can easily choose between Windows or Ubuntu upon reboot. Unlike Windows which if it detects a partition not formatted in Fat or NTFS, will very helpfully offer to blow it away. And, even if you don't do that, you can forget the Windows bootloader adding your other OS to it's menu. I mean, what would you need any other OS anyway for? You have the magnificent Vista (ha ha). You can even install Ubuntu from within Windows with Wubi which is probably going to be the default option for most people as they will do what they usually do with a new CD, just start up Windows and put it in the drive to let the autorun and setup.exe do it's magic. Since you are so obviously a troll, I shouldn't feed you but I will anyway so no one else will be easily duped by your lies.

    So when these people hand out the Ubuntu CDs, they're also going to hand out known-compatible hardware to ensure that everything on their system works correctly?

    Again with the trolling. Don't you people even stop to take a breath? Using your absurd logic, we should just give up on any operating system. As there is not a single one out there that will work with any and all hardware devices that are stuck in it. And even if you wanted to use the straw man of new hardware that someone would buy from WalMart or Best Buy today, I guess that counts out OSX too as it works with much less hardware than Linux does. I have a scanner that I use on a very regular basis that absolutely will not work in any recent version of Windows. Should I throw it away? Hell no. It works great in Ubuntu. Linux works with more hardware out of the box than any operating system ever. Period. And guess what. If you are one of the edge cases that takes an Ubuntu CD home today and it doesn't work with what you have, that's fine. Nothing works with everything. Maybe try us again next time. At least with Linux, you have a good shot of if your hardware doesn't work today, it will in a few months. Unlike Windows that if your hardware doesn't work with the Latest and Greatest, you are shit out of luck for all eternity. For the vast majority of people though, have fun with your new completely free Linux software system.

    Woot. I'm a proprietard!

    Maybe this is a little below the belt but that statement just stands on its own.

  3. Re:Time Bandits by malevolentjelly · · Score: 0, Troll

    This argument is extremely weak coming from a freetard. You can't tell me about how rational people think because you have a passionate obsession with free software. It's just a waste.

  4. Re:Time Bandits by malevolentjelly · · Score: 1, Troll

    Since Haiku took over ten fucking years just to reach Alpha? Fuck no. Haiku's not going anywhere, but nice to see where your bias lies

    Yes, that's the point. Haiku has taken 10 years to reach alpha and has a better shot of being a usable desktop system because it has a vision and a target that will result in a reasonable product.

    That's exactly the point of what I said.

    Linux has been spinning its wheels on desktop usability for over a decade now by tying itself to failed paradigms, like X and its ill thought out ALSA. The kernel team and Red Hat have long gotten past the illusion that they're making a desktop system- linux is built for servers now.