[Greennet-l] Go Open with GreenNet - Affordable Linux Training for You!

[Ian Macdonald]

Many apologies to those of you have received this message (perhaps even
twice) already. We had a systems error on Friday that prevented it
reaching everyone.
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Dear GreenNet Members,

 You may have heard us banging on from time to time, about going Open -
kicking the Microsoft habit, and exploring the friendlier (often also
safer) world of Linux-based technologies.

 But....
 "Don't I need to be a full-on geek to run Linux?"
 "My friend's brother told me that open source is rubbish because it's
all developed by amateurs"
 "But how will I be able to read the Microsoft Word documents that all
my colleagues are sending to me?"
 "I've got half my life on a Windows PC! If I install Linux won't I lose
that?"
 "What's so bad about proprietary software anyway? It's fair enough that
software developers want to make money from their work!"

Well...
 * No you don't need to be a geek to run Linux (some of us are perfectly
normal - but we appreciate geeks a lot more since discovering the beauty
of Linux desktop applications)

 * Open Source software developers tend to be a lot more like all of
us-people who want to share and build on each other's ideas. They think
that if other people think of improvements or find bugs in their
software, they should be able to get into the code and sort it out.
That's why Open Source software gets better so fast.

 * Open Office is an office productivity suite, that does pretty much
 what Microsoft Office does (including reading MS docs and saving in MS
doc format). Because the code is open, localised versions have been
created in dozens of languages that MS doesn't think it's profitable to
work in. For millions of Swahili speakers in East Africa, this has
finally allowed meaningful access to software that we have been taking
for granted for years.

 * The way we tend to install Linux on desktop PCs these days, is by
partitioning the hard-drive. This is a perfectly painless procedure,
which allows you to keep Windows running in tact in one part of the
drive and have Linux running in the other. When you switch on your PC,
you simply choose which section you want to boot up in.


 * And yes.. we also think it's fair enough for techies to make a living
from their work on software development. (That's what you pay us for
when we build dynamic websites for you, and develop brilliant anti-spam
tools). But we think it's less fair to make gezillions of dollars profit
out of licenses which you get locked into renewing, for software whose
code is locked away from the people who should be able to localise and
fix it.


 So you see, at GreenNet we're now so convinced that Linux is worth the
effort, that we'd like to invite you to come in and learn how
functional, secure and fun working on a Linux desktop is. At the
incredibly subsidised rate of £50 per person we're offering a full day's
Linux training that will cover...

 - Open source software issues, values, philosophy
 - Installation: partitioning your hard drive and installing Linux
 - Software Management: getting things working your way on Linux
 - Resources and Tools: everyday work on the sunny side of your hard disk

 We'll also be on hand after the training to offer support in keeping
things up and running.

 This training will take place on Wednesday 19th April at the GreenNet
office in Old Street, London. Please call Ian on 020 7065 0935 or write
to opensource at gn.apc.org to book your place and get more details. And if
you can't make the 19th, get in touch anyway and we'll book you a place
on the next round.

 All best wishes,

 Ian Macdonald
 On behalf of the GreenNet Collective