issue 20 - My Opinion

Linux Day is an initiative promoted by the Italian Linux Society, and it takes place every year in a lot of Italian LUGs (Linux User Groups). Last October, I went to Pisa where the GULP (Linux User Group of Pisa) organized a really nice event. They distributed a pamphlet to those present illustrating how you can switch to Gnu/Linux without any loss of compatibility with your old and proprietary software.

I think this is the real revolution started by Free Software. You can choose to install software without any controls on it, or to use Free Software that you can check, modify and redistribute in freedom.

This was the main thread of Linux Day 2008. In the morning, we had an “install party” where you could install Ubuntu in your notebook. In the first part of the morning, a speaker explained in an easy way how to install and use Ubuntu. In fact, after the install procedure, you can use it immediately with all features.

“Free Software – Freedom of choice”, and “Open source in Public administrations”, were the two important arguments of the afternoon. Francesco Galgani showed what Free Software means, specifying that Free is as in freedom not as in price. Alessandra Santi talked about the cheapness of Free Software for public administrations. Schools that use Free Software can save a lot of money and invest it elsewhere in education.

At the end of the afternoon, I also watched a small demonstration showing how it's easy to create GUIs with Glade and Python. Daniele Napolitano and Pietro Battiston showed us how you can create a GUI with Glade in a few steps and then connect it to a script written in Python.

I think this is the method Italy has to adopt for its technologies in public administration infrastructure and research. Today, we can't trust proprietary (and unreliable) software in a public office, and, above all, citizens mustn't pay for the use of expensive licenses for programs to the State when we have a cheaper and more reliable choice.