Team Longford
- Contact Details
Location: Longford
Local Parent Organisation: Midlands Linux User Group (http://midlands.linux.ie/portal/)
Team Contact: hash bang a-t ocean free dot net (This will go to Mel McWeeney -PLEASE do not put this address on webmail or outlook address books) Fix that address yourself -must do this for a spam decoy - choose your subject carefully to prevent merciless spam filters misclassifying it. If you don't know what I'm referring to here, you probably shouldn't be even reading this page, and visit microsoft .com instead ;-(
Team helpers: Please use the Wiki for discussion and colaboration and the Portal for documentation and/or links.
There is a Wiki (http://www.ifso.ie/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi/SoftwareFreedomDay) available for your co-operation and a Portal (http://midlands.linux.ie/portal) available for your contributions to this event. All constructive comments and suggestions, especially offers of help, are welcome.
Now it's time to do our preparation work for SFD 2005. We now have two committed people to do a stand at Longford Shopping Centre. We can organise extra events if we get extra people. Visit the Wiki (http://www.ifso.ie/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi/SoftwareFreedomDay).
We have missed the deadline for free supplies, but will go ahead anyway. [edit] What do we mean by "Free" software
Any CDs, we offer must consist of Free Software (http://www.gnu.org/). The criteria for what Free Software is, is best thought of by asking the question "Well, I got this software, now what can I do with it". Freedom is not about whether a payment is made to obtain it or not, it's about what you can do, now that you have it. A good definition of these criteria is available here (http://www.ifso.ie/about-free-sw.html) from the IFSO.
Freedom is about WHAT YOU ARE ALLOWED TO DO WITH THE SOFTWARE, rather than whether or not you got it 'free gratis'. This is what distinguishes what we call free software from:
* Freeware - Which is software that someone has just decided not to take money off you for.
* Shareware - Which is software that someone has allowed you to use temporarily without charging you for it. In the case of Freeware and Shareware, these do NOT offer what Free Software does...
Free Software allows these four basic freedoms, freedom to: * Study the code * Redistribute the code * Use it for any purpose * Modify and redistribute modifications of it
As you can see, the transaction is menial in relation to what we refer to as 'real freedom'. Last year, each CD given out at Software Freedom Day in Longford S.C. cost ONE EURO... the software is free but we had to pay for the CD to put it on. This was a good way of illustrating the point, and the plan would be similiar this year. [edit] SFD will return to Longford S.C.
Our first SFD event (Aug 28th 2004), was a great success, and the only surprise was the level of interest particularly in Freeduc (http://www.ofset.net/). The hope would be that we could offer this as an Educational software option again this year, albeit the latest version.
The official CD for this years event is The Open CD (http://theopencd.org/), version 3.
Last year, we also offered the IFSO Knoppix (http://ifso.ie/) CD which is now in the process of being updated probably to Ubuntu Breezy Badger, or Beatrix (http://www.watsky.net/) which is based on Ubuntu.
Last year's CD is at Knoppix from ifso.ie (http://netsoc.ucd.ie/~cathcart/ifso).
Hopefully the appeal for a Wiki on The Milug site (http://midlands.linux.ie/) will be up and running soon and this will be the focal point for collaboration for our event(s). The '(s)' means "more people means more events, but we'll look at Longford S.C. as a minimum (like in 2004).
Any help with downloading, copying CDs, or ideas as to what extra CDs we should offer should be sent to the mailing list: midlands a-t linux dot ie (And you can fix that address too). http://midlands.linux.ie/portal/