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Library to celebrate Free And Open Source software 09/13/2006

Software Freedom Day, a global, grassroots effort to educate the public about the virtues and availability of Free and Open Source Software, will offer CDs, demonstrate Open Source products, and increase public awareness of Open Source Software.

Products such as Linux, Firefox, OpenOffice.org, NVU, Audacity and the GIMP are showing up on more desktop computers every day. Firefox is a tabbed Internet browser with millions of downloads since its release, the GIMP is a top-notch graphics editing program, NVU is a complete web authoring system, Audacity is a cross-platform audio editing system, OpenOffice.org is a fully integrated office suite, and the list goes on. All these Open Source products are available free.

Open Source Software runs many of the world's servers. LAMP, which stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP, is becoming the software of choice for System Administrators and is increasing its market share annually. By 2008, the LAMP market share is expected to be over 37 percent.

Locally, Susquehanna County Library and Susquehanna Community Information Network (CIN) websites were developed and are maintained using Joomla! which is a dynamic, state-of-the-art Content Management System (CMS).

"As frugal librarians, we love Joomla! because it's free, like all Open Source Software," said Hilary Caws-Elwitt of the Susquehanna County Library.

"The best part is that staff members can add content easily to the library's website without needing to know any code. At the CIN, all non-profits and community organizations are encouraged to add content. Plus, Joomla! is flexible and powerful - just as good as software we'd have to pay thousands for!"

Free and Open Source Software is freely available from the Internet, or on CDs and DVDs. You can install it on as many computers as you like, copy, or share with friends.

Broadband Internet is recommended for downloading. If you do not have broadband at home, go to your local library, download the software, burn it to a CD to take home.

As an incentive for participating teams to promote Software Freedom Day, the international sponsor has organized a global competition, offering high performance IBM servers to teams with the best event publicity, documentary, FOSS deployment project, and event.

Autographed T-shirts are being offered as prizes to individuals producing the best SFD logo, event photo, blog coverage, and photo of the highest-ranking government official at an SFD event.

Information is available at the local website, http://sfd2006.gbztechnology.com, and the global website, http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/.

Local team leader William Davies may be reached by calling 865-368-1912 or by registering at the local website.

(c)Susquehanna Independent Weekend 2006