Free Software Desktop

We link clients with their choice of around 20,000 Free Software packages - applications that they are free to:

• Run wherever they like, for whatever purpose that they like.
• Change and adapt to suit the needs of the organisation.
• Pass on copies to help clients, staff, volunteers, and other organisations.
• Pass on any changes made, to help the community.

This includes an office suite, desktop publishing (DTP) software, image editors, multimedia software, accounting packages, and server software. For those who have never encountered a Free

Ubuntu GNU/Linux

Ubuntu is an African project, with a worldwide community of contributors, that takes the GNU Operating system, Linux kernel, and thousands of great Free Software applications, and packages them up in a demonstration CD that may be used to rey out the desktop Operating System without having to install it onto your computer.

Ubuntu is widely praised as one of the most user-friendly systems available, and is in use by many voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) across the UK. It is supported by a huge and helpful user community, as well as numerous companies like M6-IT.

Download a demo!

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS works well on about 98per cent of PCs made in the last four or five years.  Ubuntu 6.10 is a fine release - if you don't need the three year support available with 6.06 LTS. Go to http://www.ubuntu.com/products/GetUbuntu/download and get the CD disc image you need for your computer (standard Intel/AMD; 64-bit; or Apple PPC). Burn the image to a blank recordable CD (on most GNU/Linux desktops right click on the downloaded image, and click on ``Burn to CD''; on MS Windows use your choice of disc-burning software).

Most computers are set to boot from a CD if it is present in the disc drawer at switch on - if not you may need to change the Boot settings in the BIOS screen. This is the screen that flashes up at switch-on, that you can usually enter with a particular key-press such as Esc, Del, F1, or F2.

Welcome to Freedom

After a few minutes you will be facing a GNU/Linux desktop. Simple.

If you are plugged into a broadband desktop the system should have picked this up and you can now try out a simple, elegant, and functional, Free Software desktop system. Of course, as it is running from a CD it will be a little slower than running directly from your hard disk drive. It also mans that you need 256MB of RAM to run a live disk of this scope.

Should you have a spare PC at home or in the office, boot up the Ubuntu disc, and click on the ``install'' icon on the desktop - this will erase the Windows operating system and data on the hard drive (so make sure it is a spare, unwanted PC), and install Ubuntu GNU/Linux. You can now use the package management system to access repositories with nearly 20,000 software packages.

You can also partition your system to have GNU/Linux and MS Windows on the same disk, and choose at switch-on which to run. Please make sure that all of your data is backed up, and double-check this, before you start partitioning.