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When we first introduce Linux to a new user, whether child or adult, we take our time with the introductory stuff. The file system itself is a sticking point with many new Linux users. The ever-present “My Documents” isn’t to be found. Instead, they have their “Home” folder. Now, that’s easy enough to explain. In fact, we show them just how much easier their file system is for them under Linux.

For the non-enterprise FOSS user, it may seem from a quick glance that ATO has little to offer, but that’s not the case. Buried between all the technically focused talks for devs and sysadmins is a plethora of great workshops for those who’s interest in FOSS doesn’t necessarily include writing code or keeping a server or two operating. In other words, it’s not just about designing GUIs or methods for optimizing databases for intensive cloud use.

“Many Free and Open Source tools are fantastic tools but have a lack of easily accessible materials to help get people started with them,” the campaign site says. “We plan to try to help correct this by primarily producing video content that users will be able to use to help get them started in using these tools. The videos will be released under a Creative Commons license to allow the community to use them widely.”

Microsoft has gone and built a Linux distro. Well, maybe it’s not a distro but some sort of Azure switch to use in the cloud. But anyway, Microsoft want’s you — meaning you open sourcers who never do anything but throw brickbats at the fine folks in Redmond — to know that it’s built on Linux. So there. Microsoft does love Linux, as if there was ever any doubt.

Without Ritchie, there is no Jobs, to say nothing of there not being a lot of things we have today. Would someone else have invented them? Perhaps, but that’s going off-topic for now. Ritchie made the foundation and, for better or worse in your opinion, Jobs built on it. And thoughtful people know this.

Since the meeting I have fielded many Linux-related questions from parents that are members of the Raspberry Pi meetup, who were curious and wanting to know how they themselves could learn more about Linux. This curiosity was born from seeing their children playing with and using their Raspberry Pis and wanting to be a part of that experience.

No one knew about Linux because Linux is free, as in cost. Why would anyone spend huge money to advertise a product when there would be no meaningful financial return on that investment? Ubuntu was, at least in my eyes; a glorious sunrise that would awaken the world to the legitimate presence of Linux. No more of this “one percent market share” baloney. Ubuntu would be the face and the unimaginably huge base for users who would propel Linux to mainstream awareness. Oh, what a glorious day that was, October 20th, 2004.

Recently in China, once considered something of a safe haven for piraters, a two year joint effort by Chinese police and the U.S. FBI led to 25 arrests and the seizure of $500 million in counterfeit Microsoft and Symantec software products, which included over 290,000 counterfeit discs and fake certificates of authenticity. The incident reportedly led to the bringing down of two criminal organizations that were responsible for distributing up to $2 billion in pirated software.

Mark your calendars for Oct. 3. The Free Software Foundation — you know, the guys and gals who continue to tirelessly advocate for “free-as-in-freedom-and-beer” technology — is gearing up for its 30th birthday party. The party will feature an address by FSF founder and president Richard Stallman. You can learn more about the event on the celebration page and the RSVP form is open. If you so desire to use a hashtag on social media (though the FSF has this caveat about social media), knock yourself out with #FSF30.

The OSVR project points out that it isn’t in direct competition with Oculus or other VR headsets. Instead, it’s purpose is to give the community access to its developer kit to lower the price on future VR gaming products. In addition, the site offers a 3D blueprint for technically inclined people who want to build their own set of VR glasses. Information or guidelines for using or contributing to its source code can be found on the project’s GitHub page.

And the folks being given the “opportunity” to upgrade? They have no idea the fraud that is being perpetuated against them. Yeah, yeah…EULA this and EULA that. Like my 75 year old neighbor is going to read that frickin’ lawyer-ese. Like you did as well.

Back in the days when the PC and the Internet were starting to change how work is done in Latin America, I was a project manager in small business finance. Even though I’m an industrial engineer by training, because I’m tech oriented I was asked questions about network security, wireless, storage, what sort of program we could use at the office…stuff like that. My conclusion? We were either going to have to buy expensive software licenses and new hardware or find another way.

The deal created a river of money flowing into Mozilla’s coffers — $138 million in 2011 alone — allowing rapid development of Firefox, proper maintenance of Thunderbird and Bugzilla, and the creation of Firefox OS. Although there was a bit of grumbling from some FOSSers who would’ve preferred a default search engine that was more respectful of user privacy rights, the deal was generally seen as a good thing for the free and open source community.

But with some Raspberry Pi hi-fidelity add-ons mentioned in the article, including Class-D power amplifiers “delivering tens of watts,” you could make a better-than-adequate sound system. It sounds like a potential weekend project for those audiophiles out there.

The protests have brought out some prominent people from the FOSS world as well, such as Tor­sten Grote with Free Soft­ware Found­a­tion Europe who said, “Most people are still worried about the NSA. We can’t reform the NSA, but we can do something about the BND.”

Expanding Linux Venues In the South (or ELVIS): A FOSS event fit for The King, this one would be held in Memphis, as close to Graceland as possible. Everyone would be required to wear blue suede shoes. We could have Elvis impersonators demonstrating various Linux distros and FOSS programs. Heck, we could have Linus impersonators doing the same thing. And Stallman impersonators doing the same thing. And Jon ‘maddog’ Hall impersonators…you get the idea. This is definitely something worth planning, and I’m so far from Memphis. Is someone closer that could take the reins? Uh, thankyouverymuch.

The bean counters at Time Warner and Comcast lost their friggin’ minds, not just in Kansas City but in Austin as well. Time Warner began rolling out plans that automatically doubled a residential customer’s speeds, with absolutely no cost to the consumer. Not only was Time Warner promising this in Austin, even little Podunk towns like Taylor, fifty miles away, were getting the deal.

Things are looking up for those of us who think we might like using a tablet if only we could find one with a real honest-to-goodness operating system like good ol’ GNU/Linux. There are a couple of Linux based tablets in the pipeline now — with one already taking preorders for a second-round limited production run.

At first, the browser had us scratching our collective heads and wondering why, since early versions weren’t much more than rebranded versions of Firefox. The “why” question was answered with haste, however, as Chrome quickly morphed into a browser with deep hooks into Google’s ecosystem. To be sure, the browser offers many things to like in the way of convenience, but the privacy issues that come with Chrome sometimes make using it seem like something of a deal with you-know-whom. The public evidently doesn’t care, as it’s the world’s most used browser.

Although some have been trying to sound the alarm, many of us have been lulled into complacency brought by a belief that Microsoft is no longer a real threat and that we are now free to concentrate all of our energies on growing Linux and FOSS, which is basically all we’ve wanted to do.