<div dir="ltr">01 October 2008<div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">
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<a href="http://www.derekcordeiro.com/2008/10/software-freedom.html" target="_blank">Software Freedom</a>
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Software Freedom day is celebrated worldwide on the 3rd Saturday of September<sup><span><span> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software%20Freedom%20Day" target="_blank">1<img style="border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; float: none; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; width: 14px; height: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;"></a></span></sup>. But in Goa, it was celebrated at <a href="http://www.bits-goa.ac.in/" target="_blank">BITS Pilani, Goa Campus<img style="border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; float: none; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; width: 14px; height: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;"></a> on the 27th(or was it a 2 day event?).<br>
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I have heard people define Free/Open Source Software time and again.
There are endless discussions about which Open Source license is the
best. One thing that should be known to all: Open Source Software is
here to stay. Open Source even mentioned in textbooks e.g. Software
Engineering books like Object-Oriented and Classical Software
Engineering by Steven Schach. But what is the easiest way to adopt Free
Software on your Desktop PC?<br>
<br>
If you already use GNU/Linux or *BSD or Solaris, you already have a
whole lot of free software already installed. You probably have very
little non-free software. The only thing you can do to contribute is to
help others(could be help new users, or help developers, etc). If you
use Microsoft Windows or Mac, follow some easy steps.<br>
<br>
Use Free Software as much as possible.<br>
<ol><li><a href="http://getfirefox.com/" target="_blank">Firefox<img style="border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; float: none; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; width: 14px; height: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;"></a> /Chrome/<a href="http://flock.com/" target="_blank">Flock<img style="border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; float: none; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; width: 14px; height: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;"></a> for browsing.<br>
</li><li><a href="http://openoffice.org/" target="_blank">OpenOffice<img style="border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; float: none; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; width: 14px; height: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;"></a> for good quality formatted text documents/spreadsheets/presentations.(at the time of writing, OpenOffice 3.0 RC3 is available)<br>
extra: Check out the openoffice extensions like the template packs I and II</li><li><a href="http://pidgin.im/" target="_blank">Pidgin<img style="border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; float: none; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; width: 14px; height: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;"></a> for Instant Messaging.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/" target="_blank">Thunderbird<img style="border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; float: none; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; width: 14px; height: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;"></a> for email.</li>
<li>Free Developer tools like <a href="http://eclipse.org/" target="_blank">Eclipse<img style="border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; float: none; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; width: 14px; height: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;"></a> , <a href="http://netbeans.org/" target="_blank">Netbeans<img style="border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; float: none; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; width: 14px; height: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;"></a> together with <a href="http://www.mingw.org/" target="_blank">MinGW<img style="border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; float: none; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; width: 14px; height: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;"></a> /<a href="http://www.mingw.org/wiki/msys" target="_blank">MSYS<img style="border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; float: none; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; width: 14px; height: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;"></a> and free libraries like <a href="http://wxwidgets.org/" target="_blank">wxWidgets<img style="border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; float: none; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; width: 14px; height: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;"></a> (If you know MFC, it is an excellent choice).</li>
<li><a href="http://java.sun.com/" target="_blank">Java<img style="border: 0pt none ; margin: 0pt ! important; padding: 1px 0pt 0pt; max-height: 2000px; max-width: 2000px; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; float: none; line-height: normal; background-color: transparent; width: 14px; height: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline;"></a> is mostly Free software, use it.</li>
</ol>
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The most important thing though is not to discourage others from using
it.(This goes out especially to fanboys who are pretty narrow minded).
Sometimes I've heard people say that Linux sucks. I cannot disagree or
agree -- Linux is far from perfect, but nothing really is perfect.(The
same people say that Vista is awesome--I think Microsoft will not
completely agree with that).</div>
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Posted by
<span>Derek J C</span>
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<a href="http://www.derekcordeiro.com" target="_blank">http://www.derekcordeiro.com</a><br><br>-- <br>FN * Independent Journalist <a href="http://fn.goa-india.org" target="_blank">http://fn.goa-india.org</a><br>Blog: <a href="http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com" target="_blank">http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com</a><br>
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