[Greennet-l] GreenNet Linux Training - 1st September

[Ian Macdonald]

Dear GreenNet Users,

After taking a break for August holidays, GreenNet has resumed offering
monthly Desktop Linux training courses. The next one will be on 1st
September at our offices in Development House, just a 5-minute walk from
Old Street tube, from 9:30 to 17:30. The cost of the one-day course is
£50 + VAT (£58.75).

So, if you worry about the ethical implications of your consumer
choices, you should also consider who you are supporting with your
choice of computing platforms. Do you want to support the richest man in
the world with a monopolistic attitude towards computer software, or do
you want to support diverse, international networks of organisations,
developers and users? It is your choice. And best of all, Linux is fun,
secure and extremely practical.

If you are interested, respond to imac at gn.apc.org or ring 020 7065 0935
to book your place.

For more information, see the attached message below or browse to
http://www.gn.apc.org/linuxtraining.html .

And if you can't make next Friday, get in touch anyway and we'll book
you a place for the next round. We will be offering the training again
on 4th October, 3rd November and 1st December.

Best wishes,
-Ian Macdonald
GreenNet

********

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.

So, if you worry about the ethical implications of your consumer
choices, you should also consider who you are supporting with your
choice of computing platforms.

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.

* OpenOffice 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 in one part of the drive and have Linux
in another. 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 websites for you, and develop anti-spam tools). But we
think it's less fair to make gazillions of dollars profit out of
licenses which we get locked into renewing, for software which is locked
away from 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 + VAT we're offering a full
day's Linux training that will cover...

- Open source software issues, values andphilosophy
- installation - partitioning and installing
- software management - getting everything working as you like it on Linux
- resources and tools - every day 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 Friday 1st September from 9:30 to 17:30
at the GreenNet office in Old Street, London.

Please call Ian on 020 7065 0935 or write to imac at gn.apc.org to book
your place and get more details.

-- 
Ian Macdonald (imac at gn.apc.org)

GreenNet supports a progressive community working for Peace, the
Environment, Gender Equality and Social Justice, through the use
of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs).

GreenNet, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4JX
UK Tel: 0845 055 4011
Intl: +44 20 7065 0935
My desk: +44 (0)20 7065 0943
Fax: +44 (0)20 7253 2658