UNC Linux Users Group

["Douglas A. Whitfield" <whitdoug AT email.unc.edu>]

LUGers,

The Carolina Open Source Initiative has an OpEd lined up with the DTH for Wednesday, but the problem is our guy who was supposed to write it is bailing.  I don't have time to write it as I've been doing COSI stuff non-stop all day and will be doing a fair share tomorrow too.  The old writer has written 450 words, but we need 650.  UNC is helping a bid for Wikimania to be in Atlanta, which I can talk to anyone about more, so a good mention of MediaWiki, PHP and MySQL might be good for such an article.  Given the circumstances, I really don't care what it says as long as it A) mentions the Wikimania bid and B) mentions software freedom day.  We'd prefer general open source to Linux, but this is a LUG after all, so I won't argue with it. :)

Here's what our old writer wrote:

<blockquote>

Here’s a question - what’s the most expensive item you own? For many students, it’s a car, and the expense of a car doesn’t stop at just ownership - you also have to pay for insurance, oil changes, gas and regular maintenance. These aren’t cheap, but fortunately there are competitive markets for these services - and then you could save even more by fixing your own car or at least changing your own oil.

But what if you couldn’t - what if your hood was welded shut and only a trip to the car’s original dealership - paying whatever the dealer dictated - could fix whatever problems surfaced? Such is, in fact, the case for many other students’ most expensive items: their computers. You might think you own your Lenovo, but you don’t really own what makes it go: the software. You - the user, the owner of your computer - are not permitted to modify the way your computer functions, and must simply accept how, say, Microsoft dictates your experience should be. But there is a choice.

This Friday, September 14, the Carolina Open Source Initiative (COSI) will celebrate Software Freedom Day (SFD). SFD is a global, grassroots effort to educate the public about the importance of software freedom and the virtues and availability of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). What is Free and Open Source Software? Briefly, it’s software that allows you - the user, the owner - real access to the functioning of your computer.

It’s software that is fully readable, fully modifiable, and free. COSI, a group of which I’m a member, works to spread awareness and use of FOSS.

For instance, you probably are already familiar with at least one example of FOSS - Mozilla Firefox. There’s a reason it runs quicker and crashes less often than Internet Explorer - an open approach to software development means that rather than one company trying to make everything work in every situation, there are also thousands of committed volunteers around the world who work to make the software better. But it doesn’t stop at the browser - you can replace Windows with Fedora, a Linux-based operating system; you can replace your Microsoft Office suite with software from OpenOffice.org; you can replace Outlook with Thunderbird (also from Mozilla), which is far less susceptible to viruses. In fact, you can get a piece of Free and Open Source Software to do pretty much anything you want on your computer, and you can find the software online or stop by on Friday to pick up a CD packed with FOSS. Stick around for free food and a lineup of speakers, including Mark Finkle of Mozilla, along with Max Spevack from Red Hat, Amit Bhutani from DELL, Joseph Mack of AustinTek and Pam Sessoms from the University Library.

</blockquote>

Thanks for your time and helping us spread FOSS!

--
Douglas A. Whitfield

Carolina Open Source Initiative Co-President
http://www.ibiblio.org/cosi
Group SFD site: http://tinyurl.com/2qmreb
Cell: 919-360-0306

Software Freedom Day
Friday, September 14th
UNC Student Union, Great Hall