[Cialug] software freedom day

[Jeff Chapin]

There used to be a project where they took all kinds of distributable 
software (I think it was all open source, too, given the name 'opencd') 
that was designed to give out. To the best of my knowledge it included 
stuff like openoffice, Clam, some games, etc. It appears that the 
project that I was thinking of has been replaced by www.theopendisc.com. 
Rather than rolling your own discs from scratch, this might be a great 
starting point. It has a nice listing of software on it: 
www.theopendisc.com/programs/.

Personally, I think that a twofold approach would work pretty well: 
Supply something like the opendisc to show them the power of open 
software, and help them replace the non-open stuff they are using. You 
can also provide a CD with less open, but still free software such as 
ClamAv, Panda, Avast AV, Spybot, Hijack this, stuff not included on the 
first disc, etc, etc. You could also include on this second CD something 
like Portable Firefox, and pre-populate the bookmarks with links to all 
sorts of opensource resources, and information on how to use what we 
provide them.

That way, you can help clean up the computer, provide them a 
demonstration of some free utilities, and then  show them some 
additional free software, and let them take something home, even if they 
don't bring in a computer.

Jeff

kristau wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 10:54 PM, Rob Miller <robarooney at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> How about offering a basic check-up of someone's computer, in addition to
>> the linux distros and free software?  Then, we could explain about free
>> anti-spyware like Spybot S&D.  Software Freedom Day could be all about
>> freedom from software problems.
>>     
>
> Me likey.  ClamWin for virus scanning, SpyBot S&D for anti-spyware,
> Firefox for better browsing experience, Thunderbird for e-mail, etc.
> We should decide ahead of time on a procedure for this basic check-up,
> and use a standard live CD such as System Rescue CD or something
> similar.
>
>