A little while ago someone posted a link to the list for the Software for Starving Students CD ( http://softwarefor.org/get_software.html ) which seems to have a good selection of free software for Windows and OS X, though not all of it is F/OSS. The page also has a link to something called TheOpenCD ( http://theopencd.org/ ) which seems similar but contains only F/OSS software.
-Derek > Last night was the discussion meeting on future evangelism. I'd like to > thank the very few people who showed up despite the cold. > > Here's what we've decided to do: > > We'll be forming two committees- an Evangelism committee and an Education > Committee. > > The Evangelism committee will be in charge of F/OSS and Linux evangelism. > The initial committee will be active for this semester, all summer, and > part > of the beginning of the fall 2006 semester. One of their first acts will > be > deciding on one or two CDs to be distributing. We want one to be a CD of > F/OSS software for Windows and another to be a Linux boot CD. The obvious > choice for the latter is Knoppix, but they'll be evaluating multiple > options. If both Windows stuff and the Linux boot CD are available on the > same CD, so be it- easier for us. I'm told (by Anthony) that Ubunutu > makes > a CD like this. It was also suggested that this committee coordinate with > the University Helpdesk to distribute F/OSS software- putting links to > applications like Open Office on the applicable Helpdesk pages. It would > also be desirable to get OIT to distribute our official CD en masse to all > of the incoming freshmen in the fall. Lastly, I would like this committee > to, in the early fall (when people are buying their books and such), > arrange > to have some one to be at the campus book store whenever they're open to > dissuade people from buying products like MS Office and instead offer them > our F/OSS CD. These are just some ideas to start with, and the committee > will be responsible for generating more ideas and implementing them. > > Next is the Education committee. They'll be responsible for educating > people about F/OSS and Linux. Although this overlaps a bit with the > Evangelism committee's mission, I feel that it's different enough to > warrant > a separate committee. One of my biggest pet peeves is when Professors > distribute assignments and necessary material in MS doc format, > considering > that anything slightly past text doesn't work in OO half the time. One of > the things the education committee would be responsible for is educating > the > entire University faculty/staff (or whoever will listen) on topics such as > this, and alternatives to using the doc format (such as HTML or PDF). A > lecture on closed vs open standards might be in order. > > I am (as of now) looking for people to head each committee and staff them. > If you're interested, please send me an email telling me such. > > We also spent some time generating ideas for meetings. The "Evangelism > Trifecta" that we used last semester (Revolution OS, then Intro to Linux > talk the next week, then the Installfest the week after) will fall under > the > domain of the Evangelism Committee and we'll probably do it again this > semester. We also thought about running a series of "howto" tutorials on > various topics- Samba intro, Linux gaming, Xorg, apache, VPN, AFS, > iptables, > ect... These meetings would probably fall under the domain of the > Education > Committee. Ajay also suggested that we have sort of a "book swap" meeting > and/or website section. He'd like people to post IT/CS books (on to the > website) that they have and are willing to loan out. Also a meeting where > various people talk about what books they've read and would suggest > (especially if they're on Orielly Safari- free for University people) is a > possible meeting. > > I have also felt that we haven't had as many presentations at a more > abstract and complex level as of late. I'd like to have more > presentations > like Rob's security research talk last semester. For instance, I'd love > to > have a talk about how the Linux kernel is structured and how it works. > (Is > there anyone here qualified to give that talk?) Linux as an RTOS and an > example of a Linux embedded device might also be a cool talk. (Anybody for > that one?) > > I'll be scheduling the next meeting soon with Peter as he'll be giving a > talk on the Campus VPN, and I'll probably add on to his talk with > something > on OpenVPN, since it's applicable and I just finished doing an OpenVPN > roll-out. > > That's all for now- don't forget to let me know if you're interested in > heading or staffing a committee. I apologize for using the term > "committee" > so many times. I cringed every time I typed it. > > ~John Demme > UMLUG President >
