back to article FOSSers host global Saturday celebration

Join the shopping masses in Kingston-Upon-Thames this Saturday and you might come away with more than you bargained for: an Ubuntu CD, plus schwag, along with that Zara top. And if you're headed to Boston's China Town, don't be surprised if you run into the bearded free-software evangelism of GNU founder Richard Stallman or …

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  1. Martin Owens

    Yup

    I'll be there in Boston, going to be giving a lightning talk on foss economics. Oh and Ubuntu isn't the darling child of the FSF, not while it includes various naughty proprietary bits to get hardware working and allows users to easily install flash and other stuff.

  2. Mr Templedene

    Saturday is of course far more famous for being

    International Talk Like A Pirate Day

    Yarr, me hearties.

    Stallamn can walk ye plank for kidnapping our day!

    \to drunk to care

    \\do slashies count on el reg?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Arr!

    But far more importantly, bain't it Talk Like A Pirate Day Saturday too?

  4. Antoinette Lacroix

    Pathetic

    So the 'Software Freedom' folks failed to include a Flash 10 video into their stunning pre 90s design. Shows a lot of competence, huh ?

  5. Red Bren
    Troll

    What a great idea!

    "Of particular interest are people who might not necessarily want to go all out by de-installing Windows for Linux."

    Where can I get this "Windows for Linux" from? It sounds brilliant - the familiarity of the Windows user interface with the stability and security of a proper operating system! Of course, Apple got there first when they started using BSD for their OS.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Arrrrggghhh!!!

    "Free software is pointing to the fact we should be in control of the technology we use...Free software lets us modify and adapt it to suit our needs, and encourage people not to be dumbed down by the software we use," Brown said. "It's important to become literate beyond point and click."

    What is it with people like Brown over-emphisising the ability to modify free software? For 99% of users, they want a product which works how they expect, not one which they can tinker with for hours until it works how they expect.

    Linux had a chance to become the OS of choice with netbooks, but because it's still not as user-friendly as OSX or Windows, it's not taken hold of the market. Windows & OSX "just work" for what most people want to do, Linux, while infinitely more flexible, doesn't work how people expect, and the ability to modify it so it does isn't compensation for them. After all, if you got a copy of the Windows source code, outside of those who currently run (or have run) Linux, how many people would actually modify any of the code to change something they don't like? My guess is you could count them on one hand.

    I like the analogy between an OS and an engine. Almost everyone uses both, but almost everyone has no idea about the internal workings, and if it breaks they get someone else to fix it. A tiny minority of people can take it apart, fix it and build it back together better than before, but for them to expect the majority of people to want and be able to do so is misguided.

  7. David Given
    Pirate

    Date collision

    I'm sure it's just coincidence that Saturday is also International Talk Like A Pirate Day...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    They dont get it do they?

    "encourage people not to be dumbed down by the software we use," Brown said. "It's important to become literate beyond point and click."

    All very noble, but once again the FOSS zealots are missing the point for J. Public! JP is not interested in becoming tech-litereate, he bought a PC, much the same as he bought a dish-washer and a washing machine. When are the FOSS zealots going to realise this? JP simply want to fire up a "computer", be it a PC with Windows, Apple, iPhone, Blackberry, doesn't matter, just fire it up and get to mail, Face-ache, MyPap and Twatter. A computer is just another gadget to JP, if it works and does the half-dozen things the salesman says it will, then fine no more interest in how it does it, just so long as it does!

    I love FOSS, fantastic idea, use Ubuntu as main work desktop, building RHEL machines, while I have a Mac at home, all the software apps are FOSS, except iPhoto. I use GIMP, FF, Thunderbird, iTerm, VirtualBox to run Linux VMs. Only 'cos I am too tight to buy any apps, even though Apple ones are cheap, free is cheaper!

  9. Kerberos
    FAIL

    Join us next Saturday!

    Join us next Saturday for 'Developer Suicide Day', where various developers take to the streets to demand that people don't pay them for their work! I can see it already...

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    FOSSERS spotted in Cambridge

    Apparently Ubuntu CDs and some other goodies were being given out in Cambridge on saturday.

    However, it seems that a small, but unusually high, number of passers by were already empowered to "freely connect, create and share in a digital world that is participatory, transparent, and sustainable", and these passers by seemed to biased towards another open source operating system.

  11. Jamie Jones Silver badge

    @Red Bren

    There are alot that work silimar to the windows interface.

    One designed specifically that way is FVWM-95

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