Fun weekend, spent Sunday helping a friend install Linux for the first time, Mepis, this was one of the more rewarding experiences I've had lately. My friend kept pointing out cool things linux did that windows didn't, things that I long ago accepted as normal, he was amazed by the number of programs that were preinstalled, we installed flash and java, didn't bother with mp3 and libdvdcss as he has no speakers at this time, that is a project for another day, we installed the ati drivers, this was to easy. He quickly got the hang of the file system and was intrigued by the command line, I told him to check out learn Unix in 10 minutes by freeengineer.org, this is a great resource for new users and those new to the command line. Synaptic was another revelation , with the debian repositories enabled there was an amazing collection of packages available, I'm used to this kind of choice but my friend seemed to have trouble believing it was all free. I explained the idea that software should be free as in speech and free as in beer, the philosphy behind it real got him excited, that he could give it to anyone and install it on as many machines as he liked. We setup his machine as a dual boot with Windows but when I offered to test the link to Windows in grub his response was "Oh, I'm not going back to that." I will hold his hand over the coming weeks, but I think we have a convert!

I was recently ask to explain why FLOSS was more ethical then proprietary software by someone new to the concept of open source, after trying several of the more advanced arguements put forward by the likes of RMS, Raymond and Lessig I realized I was only confusing my questioner and that it was time for a much more simple explaination, here's what I came up with. "At some point when most people were growing up we had someone in our lives who cared about us and tried to teach us right from wrong, it could be your mom or dad, a teacher, an aunt or uncle or someone else, right?" Questioner "My mom", me "Great, and at some point when your mom was teaching you right from wrong she probably taught you that it was a good thing to share, right?" "Yeah" "Bill Gates and the proprietary software guys say if you share software you're stealing and commiting a crime, the free software community on the other hand wants you to share it's software cause like your mom we think sharing is good. What you need to ask your self is who do you think is a more moral person, your mom or Bill Gates?" "My mom of course" "Now do you understand why Free Software is better morally then proprietary?" "Yes" Try this arguement it seems to work.
In other news Mig21 and I are working on putting together a Lugradio fan meet up in conjunction with the Seneca College Linux Club Install Fest June 3rd if you are interested watch this space or check out the thread ont the Lugradio forums for more details.

Iriver angst! installed the absolute newest libgphoto and gphoto2 software and it detects my Iriver perfectly but when I try to upload a file it tells me that it is unable to claim the device. I have tried shutting down any programs I can think of that might be trying to connect with the device but still no joy. If anyone knows a solution to this problem please let me know.