Open Source Software

Open Source Software makes a distinction between 'Free as in beer' and 'Free as in freedom'.  The 'Free as in beer' part refers to the part that most understand easily: there is generally nothing to pay to use Open Source Software, whether at home, in development of your own busines, or in a large commercially oriented workplace. 

'Free as in freedom' refers to the basis on which Open Source software is licensed and developed: all the program code and any changes others make to the code must be freely available.  The idea is that anyone is free to change and improve their own program and distribute the changed program to others who then have the same rights.

The two freedoms are dependent on each other in interesting ways.  In a small, economically depressed town like Northcliffe Open Source Software can perform wonders.

Training the community to use open source software means students can take home the software for free and continue to legally use the software in any environment under any circumstances.  You don't need a purchase order or a grant to get 30 copies of OpenOffice.  You don't need $2,500 to make a 3D CGI movie-short with Blender.

We believe there is amazing functionaility and an even greater future for some of these open source packages (like GIMP, Scribus, Audacity and Blender to name a few gems).  Those who have skills with open source software will be well set up for life and ready to take on the world. 

With Open Source Software you are not dependent on a workplace software license agreement, on illegal pirating practices (which, other than being illegal, can severely inhibit the growth of businesses), or on crippled trial or free commercial software.

When the Desktop Publishing revolution was announced who would have realised that $600-$1,000 software packages would become one of the main barriers to the democratisation of the printed media?

Linux Options

Another aim of ours is to provide Linux Options.  We currently have one computer running Debian Etch 64 bit.  By mid 2008 we are planning to provide either Debian or Ubunutu (or both) as options on all of our 8 public access computers. 

Over your head?  Don't worry - if you're comfortable with Windows or you've never heard of Linux then rest assured Windows XP runs on all our computres as standard...  Wanting to find out more?  We also plan to run Demystifying Linux courses in 2008 as part of our efforts.

What is Linux?

Linux is an Open Source operating system that has long been the preferred choice around the world for mission critical and large scale computing applications. 

Increasingly Linux is also being used as the basis for consumer electronics devices like set-top boxes (the Tivo, Netflix movie player http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/31/211223) and mobile computing devices (phones like Google Android and ultra-portables like the Asus Eee-pc).  The ability of Linux to perform on both tiny devices and supercomputers is a testimony to its flexibility and robustness.

For those "in the know" a Desktop computer running Linux offers fantastic advantages and flexibility as well as providing a platform for running tens of thousands of freely available Open Source software packages. 

Northcliffe Telecentre aims to help our community be first in line to access these great benefits.  In many non-English speaking countries Linux is already in wide Desktop use due to the work that has been put into making it work well with different languages.  http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/02/1236237