[ubuntu-uk] Government Open Source Usage
Firstly sorry if people are already aware of this but it is important and urgent. This is something that you all need be aware of urgently: http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/2012/04/26/open-standards-consultation- important-update/ http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/2012/04/26/open-standards-consultation-important-update/ The upshot of this is that someone who was supposed to be a neutral facilitator has been found to have links with Microsoft the deadline for consultations from the public has been put back by a month. The corporate interests have been busy lobbying to get the whole Open Standards discussion perverted by FRAND patent licensing. We need to have a wide range of voices to keep the intent of this which is to allow our Government/NHS/Councils etc. to be able to gain from better quality, lower cost open source software not having to keep paying inflated prices for Microsoft/Oracle and other corporates. We now have until 4th June to make submissions. Please take an hour or so to understand the issues and add your voice to the weight of public opinion that wants an end to this corporate stranglehold on our government computing. The link to the submissions site is at the end of that cabinet office announcement. I noticed in today's Daily Mail that the MPs are all getting a complementary iPad (paid for by we taxpayers) - another huge corporation trying to get its hooks into them. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138068/MPs-offered-iPads-expenses-Commons-authorities-decide-spend-250-000-new-toys.html?ito=feeds-newsxml -- *Deluxe Technology Ltd* /Linux Consultant/ mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk mailto:mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk http://www.deluxe-tech.co.uk Mob: 07970 850961 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] Announcing January ChelmerLUG meeting - Essex County Cricket ground.
Now organised on eventbrite: http://chelmerlug.eventbrite.com/ - go there for full info if you are interested and in the area. -- *Deluxe Technology Ltd* /Linux Consultant/ mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk mailto:mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk http://www.deluxe-tech.co.uk Mob: 07970 850961 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] [UKUUG-Announce] UKUUG - FLOSS UK - Unconference - Saturday 8th October - Manchester
I am going to this - anyone else? - Forwarded Message - *From:* Jane Morrison off...@ukuug.org *To:* annou...@ukuug.org *Sent:* Monday, 19 September 2011, 9:29 *Subject:* [UKUUG-Announce] UKUUG - FLOSS UK - Unconference - Saturday 8th October - Manchester FLOSS UK Unconference 2011 When: Saturday 8th October, 9:30am - 5pm. Where: Manchester Conference Centre, Sackville Street This is our second unconference, and is being held in collaboration with local FLOSS groups including: North West England Perl Mongers HAC:Manchester Manchester Free Software Free Software Foundation Europe see: http://www.flossuk.org/Events/Unconference2011 for more information -- FLOSS UK Secretariat PO Box 37 Buntingford Herts SG9 9UQ Tel: 01763 273475 Fax: 01763 273255 off...@flossuk.org mailto:off...@flossuk.org off...@ukuug.org mailto:off...@ukuug.org www.flossuk.org www.ukuug.org A Company Limited by Guarantee UKUUG Ltd. t/a FLOSS UK Registered Office: The Manor House Buntingford Herts SG9 9AB Reg. No. 2506680 ___ Announce mailing list annou...@lists.ukuug.org mailto:annou...@lists.ukuug.org http://lists.ukuug.org/mailman/listinfo/announce -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] FLOSSUK Unconference, Manchester, 8th October.
You can find details here: http://www.flossuk.org/Events/Unconference2011 * Its on a Saturday so no need to use up holiday/convince your boss * Its in Manchester so reasonably easy to get to. * Its free of charge. -- *Deluxe Technology Ltd* /Linux Consultant/ mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk mailto:mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk http://www.deluxe-tech.co.uk Mob: 07970 850961 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] Anyone in Essex still not doing anything on Software Freedom Day? (Only 6 days away!)
Southend on Sea and Chemer Lugs are doing some joint events in Southend and need more helpers! We have a cavernous empty shop in the Victoria Shopping Centre AND SosLUGs home base at the Temporary Arts Project to fill for the day. We just need people to talk to the tempt the public into giving Linux a try. If you can help either with the day itself or setup on Friday 16th Sep please come to the soslug.org meeting tomorrow night. The address is on the website http://www.soslug.org Come on - don't be mean and keep a good thing to yourself ;) -- *Deluxe Technology Ltd* /Linux Consultant/ mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk mailto:mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk http://www.deluxe-tech.co.uk Mob: 07970 850961 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] Software Freedom Day 2011 - help needed with joint Chelmer Lug/SosLug events
Calling anyone with Linux experience that they don't mind sharing with the public who are within travelling distance of Southend on Sea. We have two different Shopping Centres and an Arts Centre to man on Sat 17th September. If you want to come help for the day please email me mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk. See http://lnkd.in/TngRcc for details Only if you are not planning your own SFD event of course! -- *Deluxe Technology Ltd* /Linux Consultant/ mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk mailto:mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk http://www.deluxe-tech.co.uk Mob: 07970 850961 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] On giving people Ubuntu to try.
I have a couple of old Thinkpad T43s that a friend gave to me thinking that he had killed them with a faulty USB device. A bit of googling and a 'deep reset' restored them both to life much to my friends consternation. I offered them him back but was given permission to keep them :) Neither laptop had an internal hard disk so they were ideal experimenting grounds for working with various USB and net booting projects. Something I found that works really well is a 2.5 (i.e. bus powered) USB hard disk. Linux installed onto a 250MB one of these is really quite usable, much more so than a USB memory stick. This is a route that you can use to get your friends to try out Linux you lend to them, without having to go axeing that internal hard disk incumbent just yet. Things will get even more interesting when USB3 ports become common, especially once motherboards can boot from them! USB3 connected hard disks are faster even than eSATA and even cheap USB3 memory keys have performance on the par with old PATA hard disks (but the small extra advantage of zero seek time!). Bootable CDs DVDs only go so far. Telling newbies that they need to be patient because of the very slow seek times is not easy. It does not create a very good impression. Peoples first impressions of Windows are not of having to install it from the media, so why should Linux have that disadvantage of first impression? One of the things we should be doing for others is 'Linux propagation' - if you have a friend who wants to try Linux ask if they have a spare USB hard disk (a smallish one would do!) or can risk the less than 50 quid it costs to buy one. We need to build some logical volume manager based system replication procedures. That 250MB hard disk Linux started life on a memory stick and using just lvm volume replication and expansion moved onto the USB disk and then onto the internal hard disk of another laptop. Having that complete bootable, golden copy of the OS is good insurance even if you do move to the convenience and speed of internal disk in the end. USB -- *Deluxe Technology Ltd* /Linux Consultant/ mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk mailto:mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk http://www.deluxe-tech.co.uk Mob: 07970 850961 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Race Online 2012 - lets give EVERYONE buying, a second user PC a chance to try Linux.
Yes gaz has hit it on the head. We need government to back peoples right to share their broadband connection with their neighbours. It is against the small print of most broadband contracts I believe. However if a whole side of a street could share one ADSL line via wireless or ethernet through the back gardens it would make connecting the as people have rightly observed 'nearly free' PCs up to the net far more doable. As people get a bit more income/desire for speed they could invest in their own line, but keeping the local net as then everyone's connection could be redundant. This is what we need to get the Government to help with. They need to get a promise out of the broadband providers that people will not be disconnected for in effect becoming the first step in providing the net to their neighbours. What we can do is provide a way of doing this (like the OLPT (One Laptop per Child) project does) without it needing a resident network guru to keep it going. There are of course vested interests who will oppose this. If people share connections on a local level the Record Companies and Film Studious will have a much harder job hounding people for copyright infringements, especially if that sharing is done by open wireless links. Message: 3 Date: Wed, 25 May 2011 17:35:43 +0100 From: gazzpmg...@gmx.co.uk To:ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] Race Online 2012 - lets give EVERYONE buying a second user PC a chance to try Linux. Message-ID:1306341343.6639.23.camel@gazzovo Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 On Mon, 2011-05-23 at 11:31 +0100, alan c wrote: On 23/05/11 09:53, Avi Greenbury wrote: They're specifically not. If, on first boot, they were presented with Grub asking if they wanted Linux or Windows with respect, I think the choice is between 'Ubuntu' and Windows -- alan cocks Ubuntu user The howling silence I notice about the whole 'Race Online' think is that cheap 'puter's aren't the issue. Pretty much anyone can get their hands on a PC capable of running a sensible Linux distro. The issue we keep coming across is the heavy recurring cost of broadband in the UK for low-income households. -- *Deluxe Technology Ltd* /Linux Consultant/ mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk mailto:mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk http://www.deluxe-tech.co.uk Mob: 07970 850961 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] Race Online 2012 - lets give EVERYONE buying a second user PC a chance to try Linux.
I was at OpenTech yesterday and there was a massive computer fair going on at ULU at the same time. There were many people selling ex corporate PCs (mostly Dells and HPs) for prices that looked better value than the Race Online Scheme! A typical example was a dual core desktop with 1G ram and 80G hard disk for 79 quid with flat screen monitors going for 30-40 quid on top of this. Yes no delivery, no after sales support but a lot more computer for the money! All these machines came with a basic install of XP only. I asked one of the vendors why they did not offer Linux as well. He was interested in the prospect of appealing to a wider audience with his reconed PCs. I found out that the image the fresh XP install onto PCs over the gigabit network that is standard in ex business PCs of the age that are available at the moment. He said that getting a fresh XP image onto a pepurposed machine this way takes just 4 minutes! As the minimum hard disk in the reconditioning marketplace is 40G with 80G and above more common I suggested to him that if 20% of that disk was given over to letting people try Linux there would be no real downside, Linux can access the XP partition so if people have music etc on it it can be played. If people really truly did not want Linux they have an extra drive letter they can use (when they get around to needing that last 20% of the disk). On the other side of the coin it would be no real hassle to axe the XP either. Microsoft is clearly going to want to put a lid on free thinking like this so we need to start a public clamour for it so they can't stop their 'Authorized Refurbishers' form giving into public demand. The hard disks in the Race Online PCs are all 80G at least so why is dual booting not an option there as standard. Why are people being forced to choose before they know anything? One good reason for dual booting is that if they manage to scramble one of the OSes beyond use (no prizes guessing which one that is likley to be) they still have the other one to be able to go online and seek help. I know we have the Boot the Ubuntu CD option but that is that little bit more complex and hard to explain to people they have to be patient because the CD is slow. I am going to try to get the Guardian involved in running this as a campaign. Why should anyone buying a reconditioned PC be denied the chance to try Linux?- If it is only a matter of the right disk image getting put on in minutes? -- *Deluxe Technology Ltd* /Linux Consultant/ mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk mailto:mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk http://www.deluxe-tech.co.uk Mob: 07970 850961 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] Race Online 2012
If you want to help the 9 million not on line yet... Some videos from the conference that has just happened: http://www.nd11.co.uk/vod/nd11-video-archive/ David Cameron, Martha Lane Fox, Mark Thompson DG of the Beeb. -- *Deluxe Technology Ltd* /Linux Consultant/ mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk mailto:mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk http://www.deluxe-tech.co.uk Mob: 07970 850961 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Race Online 2012 PCs shocker!
I seem to have stirred up quite a bit of debate with this. Michael Devenish makes a good suggestion that the Race Online volunteers need to get a bit of education with Ubuntu. It is an achievement to get it on the menu as an option but it is clear that the Microsoft spin doctors have had a hand in the wording of the Remploy site. The Windows option gets more coverage and glowing terms like 'safe and familiar'. It gets 50% more coverage in fact! It would have been nice to have little snippets like Linux's 20 year history and the fact it runs on 95% of all super computers. The page is very biased to say the least. It is regrettable that the computers are such low spec, but if you are on benefits even another £50 spent on improving this would seem like a lot. Another thing we could help with as a community is finding ways of making there low spec computers tolerable. It seems the place they have been squeezed the most is memory. Surely collectively the 'geek' community must have quite a bit of smaller capacity and old tech memory lying about. But could let the recipients of these systems get to 512 meg or more. Its just a matter of matching up memory type with who needs it. This is something that local Linux user groups need to do. Each group could have a 'charity box' of donated bits that could just be the thing to make some otherwise piece of junk live again. Using a computer need not be expensive. Just time consuming (but interesting). If the right memory cannot be found at the right (i.e. very low or free) price then at a pinch adding a second HD just for swap makes even a low memory system far more tolerable, or taking things on the head and running the OS from a £5 USB stick, just using the HD for swap. The biggest cost of swap is the fact that the disk heads have been forced away from what they were up to at the time. Take that out of the equation and a swapping system could be called sedate but not as easily catatonic. All for an old small capacity HD. We need to give these people confidence that they can 'pimp their ride' like this. I want people to see this as an opportunity to get a vibrant local Linux SIG going in your own area as a service to the community. Service can take many forms, helping more people out of the darkness of ignorance is one thing. These people will be done no favours if they go from no computer knowlege to trying to cope with XP, especially on such a low spec machine! And later perhaps some of those same people introduced to the way the global community of the Internet really is become useful contributors to cool free software projects. There is nothing to be lost by sharing more widely. With free software 'the feeding of the 5,000' (biblical reference there) is not a miracle, because the duplication of it is what computers do as a fundamental operation, it is just a matter of attitude to want it to happen. For anyone in Essex I am trying to restart the Chelmer LUG in Chelmsford. We had our first meeting last weekend and had great support from SOSLUG - but are in need of some more local volunteers too. -- *Deluxe Technology Ltd* /Linux Consultant/ mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk mailto:mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk http://www.deluxe-tech.co.uk Mob: 07970 850961 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Race Online 2012 PCs shocker!
It was actually because I approved of the sheer common sense of giving people with no previous exposure to computers Linux instead of Windows that I signed up to be Race Online 2012 partner in the first place. That is why the sudden realisation that Microsoft was involved after all came as such a nasty shock. May I suggest that we make use of the Race Online infrastructure by offering our services as help teaching people how to get started with their 'on a shoestring' Linux systems, ether the official Remploy ones or Car boot sale/donations from friends cobbled together affairs. I was under the impression that the OS for these low cost PCs would be Linux based but customised in some exotic way to make it super easy for beginners (lots of locally cached content of the sort that beginners would want to know for example). However now we find its just good ole Ubuntu 10.10 it levels the playing field to let everyone stick Linux on some old computers under the name of Race Online. Everyone who wants to help sign up as a digital champion or a partner organisation. http://www.raceonline2012.org http://www.raceonline2012.org/ Hopefully the way it works is that other partner organisations in your locality (a council of charity for example) will have the resources like somewhere to meet, but not the Linux expertise. Together we can help people to get to grips properly with the Internet, not just having it as a channel to sell them stuff. Can I please ask you to copy me in if you are signing up to help getting new beginners onto Linux. If we get a big response this could be newsworthy in its own right - which in turn leads to less 'fear of the unknown' resistance as we go forward. I am going to be at http://www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2011/ on this Saturday if anyone wants to say hi. Would Canonical not be interested in taking a higher profile in this? -- *Deluxe Technology Ltd* /Linux Consultant/ mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk mailto:mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk http://www.deluxe-tech.co.uk Mob: 07970 850961 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] Race Online 2012 PCs shocker!
The under £100 cheap PCs for the disadvantaged go on sale today. See http://www.ecycleonline.co.uk/choose-your-computer---from-9200-8-c.asp http://www.ecycleonline.co.uk/choose-your-computer---from-9200-8-c.asp Ubuntu 10.10 is there as a solid and no strings attached choice. But for only £3 more so is Windows XP and Office! This is very bad news for the disadvantaged, for the rest of the Internet community who are going to have to put up with millions of new potential malware filled zombie computers to deal with. The users also have to agree to special licensing terms as Microsoft is doing them such a BIG favour (not). Why would Microsoft do such a thing? Is it not trying to end of life XP? It seems that keeping several million new computer users away from the freedom of running and learning about the free software that the Internet itself tends to run on. We in the free software community should not take this clumsy piece of vote buying lying down. Make a fuss. Netbooks were a great chance to free people from having to run Windows. However Microsoft came in and changed ground rules, forced netbooks to be non upgradeable and carrying battery sucking hard disks because XP was not so hot about running from SSD. We don't want the same thing to happen in the second user computer marketplace now it is becoming significant. Five year old PCs are just fine for running Linux for most peoples use. They really don't need to be distracted by XP and weasel worded licences. Sorry for the long post but this has just made my blood boil and I think we should all be making the maximum fuss we can about this. -- *Deluxe Technology Ltd* /Linux Consultant/ mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk mailto:mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk http://www.deluxe-tech.co.uk Mob: 07970 850961 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] Encouraging laptops that work with Ubuntu
If I may make a suggestion? I haven't used the Pcspecialist notebooks mentioned by Richard Smith so cant comment on these particular choices, nice though it is to see 'No Operating system' as a money saving choice :) However if we do indeed find that machines offered by vendors like this who give the user the CHOICE of paying extra for Windows, and the machine is well behaved with Ubuntu such that it and an Ubuntu install CD could be given to a novice to go away and install, then we should reward such vendors by trying to get the message that we like their product out in as much online and print media as we can manage. That 'free pubicity' would encourage other manufacturers to do the same and we all get more choice of being able to not buy a crappy OS we do not want and won't be using. -- *Deluxe Technology Ltd* /Linux Consultant/ mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk mailto:mhous...@deluxe-tech.co.uk http://www.deluxe-tech.co.uk Mob: 07970 850961 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
