The second annual world Software Freedom Day will be marked by "freedom toasting" and demonstrations around the country tomorrow.
"Open source software (OSS) has progressed and is not for geeks only anymore. It is a worldwide software solution that can be used by everybody," says Adi Attar, spokesperson for the Software Freedom Day.
The Freedom Day celebrations will start at 9am and continue throughout the afternoon.
Major events will be held in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and Soweto, and will feature install fests, software giveaways and competitions.
Members of the public are encouraged to bring their computers to these venues, where organisers will facilitate OSS installations, from Mozilla Firefox to the Free/Libre open source operating system.
Other venues include the Funda Community Centre in Diepkloof, The Zone in Rosebank, Wits University, the Atlas Mall in Boksburg, the Mogalakwena HP I-community in Limpopo, the Open Caf'e in Potchefstroom, Monash University in Johannesburg and the Innovation Hub in Tshwane.
It is important to distribute the software on CDs, since SA has bandwidth problems that could deter users from downloading the software, says Attar. To this end, the Shuttleworth Foundation has supplied Monash University with a Freedom Toaster - a self-contained "bring 'n burn" facility, where users can bring a blank CD or DVD and make copies of the OSS they require. "It is an easy way of distributing large software applications," says Attar.
Visit the Go-Open Source or the Software Freedom Day Web sites for more information.
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