A free software fest organised at the State Central Library on Saturday witnessed scores of people installing Linux operating system in their laptops even as many others sat in rapt attention listening to experts speak about free software and its benefits.
Organised by the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), in association with the Thiruvananthapuram chapter of the Free Software Users Group (FSUG), and Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing Employment (SPACE), the GNU Linux installation festival was inaugurated by Achuthsankar S. Nair, Director, Centre of Bioinformatics, University of Kerala.
Referring to the recent Ransomware attacks around the world, Prof. Nair pointed out that though Linux, being open source, was among the most secure operating systems in the world, awareness about its positive attributes was still very low on account of poor cyber literacy.
Proponents of free software also should take part of the blame for this as they often clouded the minds of computer users with their technical jargon.
There must be a concerted effort to prepare a textbook, with instructions on using Linux in a concise yet simple manner.
The fest saw a healthy attendance by both software aficionados and the merely curious ones.
The ICFOSS personnel demonstrated the basics of installing free software, alternatives to Windows applications, and about user groups, forums and community support.
