Free Software and Open Source. Walking the walk as opposed to merely talking.- RE: Software Freedom

[Oren Beck]

We seem to be in agreement about free Vs non-free concepts in
software.  The concept  I am invoking centers on what each of us is
doing. To promote Free and Open Source ideals by spreading usage of
such. There is a danger of a discussion such as this rapidly
de-evolving into ugly chest beatings etc. I propose something vastly
more productive.

A simple sharing of our notes. Notes on whatever success or failure we
have had. Reports on freeing persons or companies from closed non-free
software.

MY initial "ready to share" notes start with:

A public kiosk at the campground getting about 3-5 unique NEW users a
week for most of this summer. With well over half taking one or more
of the Linux cd's on a nearby shelf. The kiosk details of note: 400mhz
p3 -384 mb ram - 32x cd-rom drive,15" lcd,usb keyboard with usb
ports-one free for staff thumbdrives and the other for the optical
mouse. Current most usable distro is Puppy 4.0 which has been
essentially flawless with the exception of the typematic rate bug.

Several total exorcisms of MS from friend's lives- their testimonials
are forthcoming.  More than a few project managers in my  mundane
working world gifted with Knoppix and a hard copy print of:

http://www.shockfamily.net/cedric/knoppix/

have called me back to say it saved their data and sanity. The related
bridges to escaping Closed unfree software is using Abiword and
OpenOffice as opposed to MS office. Sumatra PDF as opposed to Adobe.
ALL of those used as part of "crash and/or virus recovery" operations.
Showing someone that their virus infested winbox can be resurrected.
By the Shockfamily document's methods.  And then the revelation of
Free Software continuing to show that unfree software is not
mandatory.

It's Tuesday afternoon. 3 guests at the campground have been exposed
to a working Linux kiosk this week so far. 3 of 3 took copies of
Puppy.

Well- Let's hear what you have done lately?

-- 
Oren Beck

816.729.3645