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I've had a table at the <a
href="http://www.sanjosepeace.org/article.php/20101108154316816">San
José Peace and Justice Center's Holiday Peace Fair</a> a few times
since 2003, distributing "Free Software"*.<br>
Yesterday was the best. Drew, Brian, Susan, and Drew's Giant Penguin
joined me. We showed off <a
href="http://puppylinux.org/main/Manual-English.htm">Puppylinux</a>
running <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/security/">Firefox</a>
on Susan's twelve year old laptop, <a
href="http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=ubuntustudio">Ubuntustudio</a>
playing the Peace Center's videos on my two year old laptop, and <a
href="http://www.ubuntu.com/project/about-ubuntu/our-philosophy">Ubuntu</a>
on Drew's netbook. <br>
<br>
They gave us the best table, in the lobby across from registration.
The Peace Fair is for holiday shopping, and our pitch is "this is a
stocking stuffer for the person who takes care of your PC." We handed
out roughly twenty Puppies and a dozen Ubuntus. And an <a
href="http://aptosid.com/">aptosid</a>.<br>
<br>
The vibe was way up since last time. Thanks to Ubuntu's and Android's
success, and Oracle's recent attachment to Openoffice.org and MySQL,
people who pay attention to business or technology news know open
source software is competing well against the trade secret stuff. So
we aren't starting from zero in public outreach and awareness any
more. But the business news never tells you <i><b>why</b></i>, so
there's a kernel of curiosity with progressives now. With that out of
the way, it's easier to make the social justice connection. All the
folks I spoke with got it with little or no explaining.<br>
<br>
Everything worked. We installed Puppylinux on the old laptop the night
before, and had no idea how complete it was. I think the folks who try
it out will be impressed. Puppy comes with its own "lightweight" word
processor, web browser, and spreadsheet, but it's also got three-click
installers for Firefox, Openoffice, <a href="http://kompozer.net/">Komposer</a>,
and a lot of other stuff. Komposer is for authoring web sites.<br>
<br>
Puppy and Ubuntustudio connected to the wifi in the building
automatically. I didn't take the time to troubleshoot Drew's network,
we were too busy talking to people, eating, and shopping.<br>
<br>
-- <br>
<i>Cameron in San José</i><br>
<br>
*Richard Stallman capitalizes "<a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/">Free
Software</a>" that way. It's to distinguish it from Proprietary,
Patented, and Trade Secret Software that's Distributed Without Charge
But You Don't Get Any Rights.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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