Software Freedom Day in Melbourne 2010

I've always considered Open Source or Free Software to be very important in my life, and in my career. I would not be able to do many of the different tasks I do on a daily basis if it was not for the existence of Free Software. I'm sure there are proprietary alternatives, but why would I want to give up my freedoms in supporting other products.

In my daily life, I choose to have a Nokia N900 - a phone that is a computer, that runs Maemo Linux. The computer I am using to type this post is running Ubuntu as its distribution of Linux. It provides the operating system, the desktop, and the browser. All those components are also Open Source. My main desktop is a Gentoo Linux PC.

I have utilized the services provided by Mediawiki to install wikis at different places I have worked in an attempt to share knowledge and make a job easier. I use Wikipedia as a starting point for research into new topics I wish to obtain an understanding.

The company that provides this blog service is also reliant on Free Software. Google (who currently owns Blogger) use Apache, as well as many different components of Free Software to provide their services. According to netcraft.com, many other sites also use Apache as well. Google appears to use Linux as their operating system to host the websites.

I use the term "Open Source" and "Free Software" interchangeably. I know other people that would disagree with me. I'm not here to start a war - just to show there are many definitions to a similar product. Stating that, I have much respect for Richard M. Stallman, although I find some of his views to be extreme. He has to be who he is to have done what he has accomplished.

This leads me to talk about Software Freedom Day in Melbourne for 2010. If you are unaware of what I have been discussing, and would like to find out more, then make your way to it. This year, it is on the 18th September 2010 (Saturday) and, in Melbourne, will be at the State Library of Victoria.

If you are not in the Melbourne, have a look in your local area to see if there is some type of event on. This is not something that is limited to just Melbourne, or Victoria, or even Australia.

If you are interested in more information, the following links may be useful:

• SFD2010 in Melbourne - on kattekrab's blog
• SFD.org.au's Melbourne Page
• softwarefreedomday.org