[ubuntu-uk] BBC Bill Gates Interview/documentary

[alan c]

Thomas Ibbotson wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I was out this evening with some people from my lab, and my supervisor 
> brought his new girlfriend along (I didn't even know my supervisor had a 
> social life, he's in the lab a lot!). It turns out that his girlfriend 
> works for the BBC and she is part of a team which a planning a 
> documentary about Bill Gates. They want to present a balanced opinion of 
> Microsoft and I was very happy to present my "balanced" opinion (I'd had 
> a couple of pints), anyway I mentioned slashdot.org as a website for her 
> to find some anti-microsoft sentiment, and talked about Linux and Ubuntu 
> and mentioned about the BBC iPlayer and its incompatibility with Linux. 
> She said that the BBC would support Macs 'soon', but didn't know 
> anything about Linux.
> 
> Anyway, I thought that this would be a good opportunity for 
> advertisement of Ubuntu, and I wonder if anyone has any ideas for 
> sources I could pass on to her via my supervisor. Of course I think she 
> would get a bit tired of a barrage of anti-microsoft propoganda. However 
> I think it might be good to pass on information about FOSS and FUD and 
> other acronyms she might not know about.
> 
> Does anyone have any ideas of information we could pass on (she seemed 
> to be woefully lacking in information about Linux and was eagerly 
> writing everything I said down in her notebook, even though I don't know 
> that much myself)?


There is a fascinating  item from 2002 containing some grass roots 
arguments  for open source:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/05/19/ms_in_peruvian_opensource_nightmare/

Equally as powerful, if not more so is Eben Moglen's lecture at 
Edinburgh 2007. I was particularly struck by the concept of having to 
buy a sufficient quantity of mathematics to complete my everyday 
activities.....
http://www.archive.org/details/EbenMoglenLectureEdinburghJune2007StreamingVideo384kbits

These are (long and) full of gold, I trust the researcher will find 
interest in them.
-- 
alan cocks
Kubuntu user#10391