[Infopoint] Linux vs. FOSS

[Katherine Goodwin]

Russ Phillips wrote:
> Schwuk wrote:
> 
>> same. For the Cumbria infopoints (when we finally get organised) we'd
>> planned on showing cross platform FOSS running on Windows and Linux.
> 
> 
> As someone that was planning on helping to run the Cumbria infopoints, I 
> agree :-) Giving people good quality FOSS that they can run on Windows 
> gives them an easy way to see how good FOSS is. TheOpenCD is excellent 
> for this, since it includes an application browser that works in a 
> similar way to magazine cover CD browsers. It also includes books (The 
> Cathedral and the Bazaar, Free as in Freedom and Open Sources) and a 
> trailer for RevolutionOS, so there is plenty of information for anyone 
> who gets interested in FOSS.
> 
> As Schwuk says, if people start using FOSS programs on Windows, then the 
> transition to Linux is much easier.  I really think that many people 
> will ignore a Linux CD (even a live CD), but they might have a look at a 
> CD full of programs they can put on their existing system. I'm not 
> suggesting that we should ignore Linux and the BSDs, just that we 
> shouldn't ignore Windows-based FOSS either.

We tried that at the Birmingham Infopoint we did and the OpenCD went 
down well with some people but it was often difficult trying to figure 
out what the people would really use.  Often they just wanted to take 
away both CDs and while we're giving them away, that's just not 
feasible.  And unfortunately, the time taken to produce the CDs is the 
biggest factor with us, so even charging a small fee wouldn't really 
help that (I don't think).  However, I am planning to have a range of 
stuff on the stall next time, including Ubuntu, Knoppix and the OpenCD 
and that'll probably just make the problem worse...

How have other people addressed this sort of thing?

Kat