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Adrian Midgley wrote: >Tom Brough wrote: > > >>As we haven't done anything as a group to mark software Freedom day >>(16/09/2006) >> >> > > >Shall we work on what is needed to establish the support ecology locally >for FLOSS for next year's day? > >I agree with Theo and others that there are software things to do still, >but I think they are less needed than the ignition of the economy that >is required to assure people's aunts and employers that they can rely >upon supportable solutions that have their new problems solved. > > > > Is the support ecology top priority ? The Community software support model is radically different from proprietary model. Support comes from within. Yes we need to let people know that DCLUG is there for ALL its members old/young new / experienced and where to find us (other than being a google away). But strength comes in numbers, more eyes and ears. One might argue that the greater the numbers the better the support. My personal focus would be on younger members of our society... They need to know now that they have choices for their future and important ones too. As I get old I see a lot more doors closing than opening. But I can remember when I was young and sat in front of my BBC Micro for many an hour. Our machines back then where no more than pocket calculators but if you could plug a tape deck into a radio you could record programs beamed directly from the BBC on radio programmes present by (Barry Norman ?), thinking one day this will be multimedia, linked to the world, interactive and improving my education. All this is now true... I can email and chat (via IRC) and even at times use gnomemeeting for video conferencing to friends in far off places like the Philippines, Brazil and the Cameroon, and I (and they) can do it all using FLOSS. Some say that we should use Microsoft because it is the Market Leader. However most of the "market leaders" in the day of my BBC have long perished..... who uses wordstar or visicalc ? Yet what conceptually is the difference between these products and word / writer or excel / calc - very little. The fact is that tommorow Microsoft, Linux and even GNU might go the same way as wordstar and visicalc..... but the ideas behind community software projects, sharing and caring for software ..... well its hard to kill idea's even in a dictatorship. Lets show the younger generation that we are not ashamed or embarrised by products that members of the free software community have labored hard and long over. Lets show them that we still have that pioneering spirit, and that choices are available and free for them to make. Long live the idea of FLOSS and the community that is FLOSS. and for the Penguin (and Gnu's) sake please lets get the message out there next year :-) Tom. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html