[Fsuk-manchester] "Selling" Free software to the masses

[Luke Taylor]

Merry Gravitas all!

I am putting together some literature to give out to the students at Manchester University promoting free software (and free culture). I have looked around and haven't found any good resources for "selling" free software to non-geeks. Does anybody have any good ideas or points to make to enthuse somebody who may not even know what source code is? The finer points in the GPL versus BSD debate may need to be dropped for example and probably the whole four freedoms thing. I have written a quickie and would be very interested in feedback from the geeks:

Software

The problem

If you are a brilliant scientist and build upon the ideas of Einstein you will be applauded. If you do the same thing in software you will be taken to court. Patents and intellectual ownership of techniques in software make cutting edge research necessitate the services of a lawyer.

If you own a windows PC or a Mac then it is illegal for you to study how your computer does what it does. Software runs the world, most work today involves computing and it is natural that (some of us) should take an interest in something so important. Education is a fundamental right that is not respected by these proprietary operating systems.

The complexity of modern operating systems make it impossible for any small groups to reinvent or rewrite everything so unless we concede a world where all software, and by extension much of our lives are owned by either Apple or Microsoft. We must turn to free software.

The solution

“Free software”, often called open source software is software that respects the users' freedoms. Free software grants the freedom to study, innovate and redistribute software however the users see fit. This ethos of community and freedom has led to some of the most powerful, innovative and efficient pieces of software ever written. All the specific examples given below are free to download and run on Windows and Gnu/Linux.

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