[Cialug] software freedom day

[Jeff Chapin]

Another 'biggie' that I think would be nice, would be a comparison of 
something 'open' to something 'free'(but ad supported). The best example 
I have ever seen of this is run a multi-protocol chat program, like 
pidgin on one computer, and then run all the required single-protocol 
clients on another. Show the ease of an all-in-one solution and how 
adding an account for that one user on obscure protocol XYZ is no big 
deal with pidgin. Another *huge* selling point, especially when you run 
them side-by-side on different machines is some of the 'free' single 
protocol clients are infested with ads, and annoying popups. The last 
time I say the official AIM client, it popped up a welcome screen, 
infested with ads, wasted 1/4 the buddy list to ads, and then slapped 
yet another ad into the chat windows (which at the time were not 
tab-able). This massive influx of ads, was enough to get many people to 
ask me how I got rid of them when they say me using Pidgin -- and they 
converted immediately.

Jeff

Jeff Chapin wrote:
> 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 that the project that I was thinking of has been replaced by 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.
>>
>>   
>
>