On 10/02/2009 12:39, Lucy wrote: > It's saying 'primary operating system' not only operating system. > Also, there's more than one FOSS OS (and even more UIs). > > By getting FOSS into schools you are getting rid of the current > monopoly, you are telling the kids that it's okay to learn about the > systems, that it's okay to share interesting programs with friends or > to take a copy home to finish up some homework. You're enabling them > to reuse old PCs. You're showing them that they can be a part of a > global community and that they have the power and opportunity to > collaborate with others to make things better. > > I think part of the general problem that that a lot of people think that sharing software is wrong as it's been drummed into them for so long. At least the community are slowly getting the message through, even if it is only to a minory of people. I found that the Exwick Community Centre open day was a great place to talk to people about Free Software. The visitors could see the software running, they could see that it's not all scary command lines (although one guy did like the command line as he was an ex-COBOL programmer and was used to the old dumb terminals) and they could take away a disc for free to try and home. They were pre-pressed Ubuntu 8.04 CDs so they looked like they were legitimate an IIRC they said on the disc that they were free to use and pass on. Slowly we were getting the message across that you don't have to pay mega bucks to get software, there is all this quality free software available that not only doesn't cost owt, it is also free to share (and if so, free to tinker with). A few of the visitors were low income families and single parents. One woman I talked to had a PC but didn't have broadband. I got the impression that she'd like to learn how to do things like Word Processing and general internet and office tasks, even if it was just something to do but couldn't afford the high prices of the software (even £100 for Office 2007 isn't that cheap when you are on a low income and don't have a powerful enough PC to run it). She took an Ubuntu CD and my phone number and I also took her number and said that I would ask about running some OpenOffice training courses at the centre.
Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
