Thanks John I'll investigate those links I did attend a short (1 hour) session at last years Charityfair that was billed as an introduction to Linux for the voluntary sector - and used Ubuntu as it's example. I enjoyed the session, but it was a bit vague - with plenty of enthusiasm, but not a lot of organisation.
I do use Firefox, and have persuaded some of our users to use it too - but once again there are a few critical functions that only work in IE. I really think that if some core group/activity could be established it could go a long way. -Adrian -----Original Message----- From: john levin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 10 March 2006 14:19 To: British Ubuntu Talk Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu Advocacy [Scanned] Adrian Mitchell wrote: > Hi > I'm looking for suggestions about spreading the use of Ubuntu. > > I'm very impressed with Ubuntu and I would like to do my best to > encourage the UK Voluntary Sector to make more use of FOSS - and Ubuntu > in particular. > Trouble is, other than fairly casual conversations, I'm not sure of the > best way of doing this. > Has anybody got any ideas? > > It seems to me that the voluntary sector and FOSS are a perfect match. > In fact I'd go as far as saying that the voluntary sector could be a > significant driving force in the wider acceptance of FOSS. > > Unfortunately even here Windows is ubiquitous - and even where > organisations might be prepared to switch to Linux there are problems > with knowledge/skills (particularly with regards to multi-platform > networks and network admin/security issues) - but also problems with the > fact that a lot of 3rd party/custom/proprietry software being used > within these organisations only runs on Windows. > > Presumably the only way to put pressure on these software developers > is > for more people to use Linux - but we have a catch 22 since they (will > say they) can't use Linux with their existing software. > The charity that I work for has this problem - both our central > database, and our websites currently only run on MS SQL and use .Net. > Is there a simple way of getting around this? > > Adrian Mitchell > My feeling is that there are quite a lot of small initiatives for bringing FLOSS into the voluntary sector (and public sector), spread all round the country. An example of a complete (and cheap) linux (Red Hat and LTSP in this case) solution: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39166840,00.htm For national co-ordination, there's the social source events: http://www.socialsource.org.uk/ (Don't know what the current status is with that; the site doesn't seem to have been updated since November last year.) As far as Ubuntu specifically, I don't know of any deployments in the Vol/NGO sector in the UK. Interesting round-up http://www.lasa.org.uk/cgi-bin/publisher/display.cgi?1427-10103-12611+co mputanews My hunch is that the way to spread FLOSS is start with Firefox, so people don't have to jump straight into a new OS, but can see the benefits of free software quickly and in practice. Start with the (Canonical-supported) Open Cd: http://www.theopencd.org/ which comes with a cut-down version of Ubuntu Live. If there are enough people on this list involved in the voluntary sector, it could be worth starting an Ubuntu-for-Orgs.uk initiative, to promote and support orgs wanting to use FLOSS. HTH John -- ubuntu-uk mailing list ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk -- ubuntu-uk mailing list ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
