On 17/05/11 23:30, Martin Houston wrote: > 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 >
So what can we do about this, I am currently helping at a youth music project that has now got 4 / 5 ubuntu computers up and running, I am struggling to maintain what we have on zero budget if we as a community want to promote Ubuntu and or Linux to the masses we need investment and money overall. User groups want to do something, but may lack the funds to do so, if we find a worth while cause we end up hitting a financial barrier, we need to promote the alternatives and actually BE THERE when people want help, so we can support up to a point then if I am stick i need to be able to get someone who can help there ASAP to sort out the issue, We need to educate people as to what is wrong with MS and word without making us look like some fundamentalist out of touch lunatics, so we need a proper argument, backed with evidence, backed with support, find out the arguments against OSS and create counter arguments and provide a viable alternative. oh and people have full time jobs, so we need to do this when we have time and between other activities. perhaps one of the reasons that MS have jumped on this is because they can, they have the discs, have the books, have the support and can afford the infrastructure. The OSS community can't so we lose out and will continue to do so. did canonical offer to do anything on this. we need to all work together, regardless of distro and really push what we believe in. so the alternative is viable. Paul -- Paul Sutton Cert SLPS (Open) http://www.zleap.net Open Mic nights - Wednesday 8pm to 11pm (14+) Free entry Breakin' Ground - Street dance for young people (8+) Wednesday 6pm (starts May 11th) The Lighthouse,26 Esplanade Road, Paignton 01803 411 812 or e-mail i...@devonmusiccollective.com for more info. 17th September 2011 - Software freedom day -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
