As allways I volunteer to give the philosophy lecture.
I can also give a rerun of the living in the community lecture.
--
Ori Idan
On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 4:54 PM, Shlomi Fish wrote:
> Hi all!
>
> Well, as you may have noticed, there wasn't a general consensus on whether
> "Welcome-to-Linux" (= W2L) or "Welcome-to-FOSS" (= W2FOSS) were better.
> However, looking at the schedule at:
>
> http://welcome.linux.org.il/2008/timetable.html
>
> it seems very old-fashioned and rehearsed. We can just keep the slides and
> refer people to them. As the Telux/TelFOSS "benevolent dictator"[1], I
> think
> we'll do something which is kind-of in between.
>
> What I think is that we need at first is a two part series. The first
> installment (not necessarily the first one to be given) will be a showcase
> of
> lots of FOSS (Linux, but also portable software) awesomeness-factor:
> graphics,
> features, usability, some free games[2], Amarok, kaffeine/totem, etc. We
> should remember that using a laptop (with Linux or otherwise) and having an
> Internet there are mutually exclusive, unless we can get Eddie to somehow
> give
> us the necessary Tel Aviv Uni INET privileges.
>
> The second installment will be about the FOSS philosophy, ideology and its
> practical implications. The summary of it that I have so far is:
>
> <<<
> Welcome-to-Linux / Welcome-to-FOSS abstract
> ---
>
> * Introduction:
>- What is Free Software/Open Source:
>- source code
>- analogy to wikipedia. (?)
>- Edit/View source.
>- The FSF Free Software Definition
>- FOSS != Public Domain
>- copyleft.
>- some restrictions.
>- share-alike
>- permissive licences (BSDL, X11L, etc.)
>- do what you want with them?
>- mostly
>-
>
> * Examples of open source software:
>- Firefox.
>- OpenOffice.org
>- Linux.
>- what is an operating system.
>- A free kernel.
>- The GNU/Linux run-time.
>- lots of names - X11 (X.Org), KDE, GNOME, OpenSSH.
>- don't be alarmed.
>- Other similar OSes (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD).
>- Many distributions.
>- all packaging the same FOSS components (with some
> modifications).
>- Different glue, behaviour and features.
>- Different bugs.
>- Our recommended distributions:
>- Fedora
>- Mandriva
>- Ubuntu
>- links to pages with information about them
>- material of previous presentations.
>-
>
> * Advantages of open-source:
>- May not cost money.
>- gratis/costless/free-as-in-free-beer.
>- freely distributable
>- Note: it's ok to sell it!
>- Story of Stallman selling tapes of GNU software to people who
>could not download them from the Internet.
>- Can be modified and enhanced:
>- study the source to learn how the program works.
>- for enlightenement.
>- to compensate for lacking documentation.
>-
>- fix bugs.
>- add new features.
>- refactoring.
>- fork
>- Use the Internet for collaboration
>- Bazaar model of development.
>- Refer to the Cathedral and the Bazaar series.
>- Not anti-commercial / anti-business.
>- Many valid business models.
>- Examples (?)
>- Lots of profitable companies.
>- As opposed to tangible goods (e.g: hammers, cars, food), software
>once developed, can be mass-produced at zero cost.
>- Many developers develop FOSS for fun
>- Many developers get paid to develop it.
> >>>
>
> It could use some work, but I hope you get my drift, and suggestions will
> be
> welcome.
>
> After these two presentation (whose order I'm still not sure about but I'm
> leaning to make the first one the first.) we can have a presentation for
> developers covering the various options for FOSS development (not only C or
> even only Java) and maybe then have some Haifux-like "Staying-in-FOSS"
> presentations. These seems more hip, more modern and less resource
> consuming
> than having a 5-installments long series just about Linux.
>
> I also see that Haifux will have a Welcome-to-Linux series this year, and
> would like to commend them for it.
>
> Thoughts anyone?
>
> Regards,
>
>Shlomi Fish
>
> [1] - not "for life", though. I welcome spin-offs of Telux, coups, etc.
>
> [2] - Yes, I know that they are not up-to-par with commercial offerings,
> (see
> the other thread) but many open-source games can still be impressive:
> PySolFC,
> Extreme Tux Racer, etc. These can provide a large glitz factor too.
>
> --
> -
> Shlomi Fish
