[Glastonbury] The openCD

[peter.t.cole at lineone.net]

>
>Last Wednesday 25 August 2004 12:13, peter.t.cole at lineone.net was like:
>> I have down loaded the openCD it seems a really good way of getting Windows
>> users on to Open Source  software.
>
>I can guess too, but I'd not heard of it before.
>Do you have a URL for it?

www.theopencd.org

there is lots of software on it Openoffice, gimp, pdf creator ,audacity
molliza, file zilla + loads more

>
>> I am open to comment on the next bit.
>>
>> I have been tying to think of ways of getting open source products out
>to
>> the masses, first though was to take out an add in the Blackmore vale
mag
>>  and try and get an editorial on the subject, but that was as far as
I
>got
>> on that one.
>>
>> the next thought that i had was to burn 5 or 6 copies of the open CD
and
>> sent it too the MD's of the big supermarkets and suggest that they had
>a
>> whole load of CD's
>
>How would they get hold of the quantity of CDs required?
>
>> and gave them away to customers or sold at a small fee
>> to cover cost's and any money left over could be split between  charitys
>> and Open Source projects.
>>
>> I think i may well be spitting into the wind on this but if even just
one
>> of the chains took this up it would get Open Source software out to a
lot
>> of people with out the shock of having to change OS ( we could add knoppix
>> as well ) .
>
>Generally speaking I prefer networking this kind of stuff, which is
>potentially even slower than what Nick was suggesting, it would give the
>
>recipient at least one line line of direct support. I am planning to
>distribute AGNULA/DeMuDi installers along with my music CDs, I could handle
>a
>few copies of this CD for my Windows using friends (I assume this is what
>
>it's for?) who desperately need some (any) decent software.
>
>I was appalled to see the state of a client's XP install, not only was
it
>
>riddled with Trojans & virii, but it didn't seem to contain very much in
>the
>way of useful software. Obviously XP users aren't expected to either want
>to
>edit HTML pages or ever use FTP, or at least they are expected to pay 100s
>of
>pounds for the privilege, and even when you do pay the money, support is
>far
>from guaranteed and usually consists of some know-nothing on the end of
a
>
>very busy phone line.
>
>OK, this will come as no surprise to those of you who live closer to what
>is
>laughingly described as 'the Real World' - I was genuinely shocked. I'd
love
>
>to have a CD of Win-compatible software to offer to these people, they
may
>
>have a terrible OS, but they could at least have some decent software.
I'm
>
>starting to encourage all Windows users to switch to Mozilla-Firefox in
place
>
>of IE - it would make writing web pages a lot easier if everyone used an
>
>up-to-date standards compliant browser. Because of the corporate nature
of
>
>the beast, many users are using old versions of IE, which doesn't even
read
>
>HTML4.x particularly well. Firefox has a rich supply of extensions, which
>
>would cover most of these needs and blocks pop-ups BY DEFAULT (and for
free).
>
>I know I'm both preaching to the converted and rather OT for this list,
except
>
>that I think this is a way of promoting free software and also easing the
>
>predicament of our Windows-using friends, whilst introducing them to a
whole
>
>other world. Once they stop depending on M$, persuading them to jump ship
>
>entirely will be much easier.
>
>My 2p anyway.
>
>tim hall
>
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