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Software Freedom

This page was designed to be a starting place to collect resources and discuss issues related to Software Freedom, especially the planned Software Freedom Day, and Software Freedom Season. A new initiative is now being set up at: SoftwareFreedomDay.org

Two days to celebrate:

August 28
March 4

Proposal

The Software Freedom Season will officially begin on Software Freedom Day, either March 4th or August 28. There is no specific end date to the season, but fades into the following Software Freedom Season.

This day and season are meant to be an annual, international celebration of free software (sometimes referred to as open source software). This season is meant to be a time of outreach to show what can be accomplished by the spirit of the programming community. But this season is also a time to celebrate this spirit, and recognize our friends in this endeavor. Why March 4th? Any day of the Software Freedom Season would do (which means any day of the year). But, as Jim Thomas suggested, this day cries out to march forth in celebration of Software Freedom Why August 28? Good time of year, especially for colleges.

Activities

What can I do to help?

Organize a show-and-tell of free/open source software in local schools, libraries, etc.
Burn some CDs containing free software for students or schools
Send an e-mail to the mailing lists/authors of your favorite 3 packages
Host an "Open Source Users Group" meeting
Hug an open source programmer
Meet fellow Software Freedom Fighters for tea, or other beaverages

Resources

The following links are provided for public use. Please do not link material that is not available under an Open Content License.

SoftwareFreedomDay.org

Presentations

If you have a slide show (say, in HTML, OpenOffice, or PowerPoint) please list it here. If at all possible, please provide links to the presentation data files (eg, .PPT, .SXI files) so that others can improve and alter their presentations for their own uses.

WhyIUseOpenSourceAndHow - some notes on free software
Devon & Cornwall Linux Users Group
www.haywood.k12.nc.us/oss/oss.html
The Case for Linux in Universities

Software and Projects

Software, projects, or compiled lists that could be useful for those interested in finding free and open software.

wikipedia.org/ - a community created encyclopedia
GIMP, the popular GNU Image Manipulation Program
OpenOffice.org, a complete and completely free office suite
Mozilla, all that you can ask of a web browser
VNC, Virtual Network Computing - a free remote display system for various platforms
LAMP: Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl/ PHP/ Python
GNU Win II - Free software package for Windows (in 4 languages)
Audio Applications for Linux, many of which are Free Software
Simple End User Linux Software List