[Colchester] Software Freedom Day

[Wayland Sothcott]

Sam Tuke wrote:
> I think that the PCWorld suggestion would not be a good idea at all.
>
> Sam.
People who buy PCs are potential Linux users. I think PC World is a 
great shop but many customers seem to think that it's the best place for 
PC advice. We might do better offering 'rescue' disks. A Live Linux CD 
which allows them to get back online and also get access to their hard 
drive. If we want to get some converts then we could actually give 
suiatble rescue disks to PC World tech staff after a little chat.

The most practical way to be is to be good at all computer stuff not 
just Windows or Mac or Linux. People are aware the Microsoft try to lock 
them into Office 2007 by installing it 'free' and then it runs out in 3 
months after they have saved all their stuff in 2007 format. Just a 
quick word about saving in the earlier format means they can switch to 
Open Office later.

Here is another thing. People who only use Internet Explorer have never 
heard of it! Seriously, to them it's not Internet Explorer, it's The 
Internet! However many people have heard of and use Fire Fox, but they 
have not heard of Opera. Oddly many people who have heard of Internet 
Explorer are now using Google Chrome, but they have confused Google 
Chrome with Google the search engine website. The reason is that 
Internet Explorer users have a large Google Chrome install button on 
their Google home page!

I believe the Open Source community is having a great deal of success 
with free software. The cost of commercial software for the features 
people don't know about does play a big part. I know people who hate 
Open Office but don't find a problem with what it can do, they just 
don't like the fact it's differnt.

Wayland.