Software Freedom Day
A very strange thing happened today. I was at the local library with the kids, when I noticed a couple of guys wearing yellow shirts blowing up balloons. One fellow looked like a grad student, the other - a bit like Santa Claus. Santa looked a bit familiar. Looking a little closer I realized this guy blowing up balloons was none other than Jon "maddog" Hall, executive director of Linux International and uber-linux-programmer. The other guy was Matt Oquist, one of the founders of 'Software Freedom Day'. Software Freedom Day is an effort to encourage the use of free and open source software. Jon and Matt were getting ready to pass out Ubuntu disks to any one who came by. I chatted with them for a bit. I was especially interested in hearing what Matt had to say about the use of open source in public schools. That's how he got started in the first place, trying to advocate for the use of free software in education. When I told them I worked for Sun, Maddog and Matt both wanted to know why Sun doesn't work harder at promoting Star Office / Open Office. I had no answer for them. Hey, I'm just a tech guy. But it did make me wonder why Sun is not working harder to get Open Office into schools. I cringe everytime I hear my kids talk about working on powerpoint presentations for homework.
I was really pleased to see what these guys were doing (and I was pleased that they gave me the latest Ubuntu CD as I need to upgrade my laptop).