Software Freedom Day was held on Saturday 20th September. It was a chance to raise more awareness of GNU/Linux and free software. I got involved with the day, and setup an awareness stand with my friend Jake. We burnt off about 25 copies of Ubuntu, 10 copies of Open Disc (containing OpenOffice, Firefox and more free software), and about 5 copies of Open Education disc, which contained free educational software for students.

The day went from 10am till 4pm. Software Freedom Day for our team consided of a few lengthy discussions based on GNU/Linux, showing off the Compiz-Fusion project, demonstrating a few features of OpenOffice, and of course, teaching some newcomers what GNU/Linux is about.

For those of you who are still Windows users, and don’t know whats so great about the whole GNU/Linux deal. GNU/Linux respects your freedom a lot more than Windows. By saying this, it’s free (does not cost), is open source (edit the source code to your will), you can use any tool for any purpose. Unlike Windows applications, where you are restricted to what the program can, and can’t do. You can’t extend, or modify an official Windows application.

For those who want to read more about what GNU/Linux is, what freedom of GNU/Linux is, you should check out Richard Stallman’s book, “Free Software, Free Society, Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman”. It is very worthwhile reading, in fact I have my own signed copy of it.

You can check out a small video clip from the day below.