Happy Software Freedom Day!
Posted by Peng on 20 September 2008
Today is Software Freedom Day (SFD) 2008, the day that we not only rejoice in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), it’s also the day that we let others know how easy it can be to get work done without having to spend arms, legs, and in some cases our first born, on closed source, proprietary software. Plus free software is instrumental in making sure you’re not robbed of your human rights simply for being a computer user. It’s ironic, of course, that Software Freedom Day follows Talk Like A Pirate Day, especially since using free software takes coins away from the Lords of Redmond.
You can find a participating team on the SFD interactive map and find the location nearest you for information on why open source software is so great. Of course if an interactive map isn’t quite your style they do have a list of the participating teams in a table format as well. In Boston the Free Software Foundation will be hosting Free Software Day (in Boston) 2008 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison Ave, 5th Floor, in Boston’s Chinatown.
At SFD events you’ll be able to get some nice swag, possibly including tees and stickers but definitely including free copies of the OpenDisc, loaded with almost 40 software titles including
- Design programs: Blender, GiMP, Inkscape and Scribus
- Games: Eigma, Neverball and Sokoban YASC (Yet Another Sokoban Clone)
- Internet apps: Azureus, Firefox, Pidgin, Thunderbird and TightVNC
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Multimedia apps: Audacity, Celestia, Really Slick Screensavers and the VLC media player
- Productivity apps: GnuCash, Notepad2, OpenOffice.org and PDF Creator
- Utilities: 7-Zip, Clamwin, HealthMonitor and TrueCrypt
If you don’t make it to a SFD event you can always download a disc image for the OpenDisc as well as cover art. They even have an OpedEductaionDisc designed for educators and students age 10-21+ to help them complete homework and coursework assignments. Please note that while many of these programs have Linux versions, the OpenDisc is specifically for Windows users. Of course since many of the local SFD teams are made up of Linux users you can probably find free LiveCDs of Linux distributions as well.
I want to send out a great big THANK YOU to the corporate sponsors of Software Freedom Day 2008, without whose help and finances SFD simply wouldn’t happen at all, this year or any year.
- Sun Microsystems
- linode
- BitePR
- Canonical
- DKUUG
- The Free Software Foundation
- Mindtouch
- and of course media partner Linux Magazine
Nanci Barthelmess said
There’s also a Software Freedom Day celebration in Second Life on Free and Open Island in Ama-gi (SLURL). They already have a freebie market open and there will be a six hour music festival beginning at 12 PM SLT.
Christopher said
There’s another Open Source CD Project Called the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Scociety Open Source CD for Windows (TTCSOSSWIN CD) http://www.ttcsweb.org/osswin-cd.
They offer a wide variety of software titles on their CD image. Many more than OpenCD does. Has a nice web interface with screenshots and links. They also packages apps without installers using the Nullsoft Installer.