dc8 - 1.1

DebConf8
Super Cow Powers Included

Speakers
Andreas Tille
Schedule
Day DebianDay BA (2008-08-18)
Room DebianDay - Lenny
Start time 11:00
Duration 01:00
Info
ID 248
Event type lecture
Track DebianDay
Language

Knowledge, Power and free Beer

The position of Debian in the Free Software world - sorry, there is no beer served in this talk

Sometimes the meaning of 'free' remains vague and unclear for outsiders. There seem to be different prices for something that is free which is confusing. The talk tries to find an answer to the question: What the hell will I get if I buy a box labelled "Debian GNU/Linux"?

What is Free Software? What is a distribution of Free Software? Why do I have to pay something if people tell me it is free? What exactly do I get for my money? How can I find the things I really need in the jungle of Free Software?

These questions might be asked by people who heard something in the news about Linux, Firebird etc. but do not have a concept about the ideas behind it. The talk tries to give reasonable answers while beeing careful with the usual polemic about this topic.

The talk might be interesting for two types of people:

  1. People who are asking the questions above.
  2. People who tried to answer the questions above (for instance to their grandmother) but failed.