The geek as activist

The Geek Freedom League actually exists. Its existence was proclaimed enthusiatically by a usually mild-mannered and friendly chap, who happens to be a family member. But when he comes to open source, he becomes a militant. And like all militants, militancy requires wearing the right gear and having the right slogans. His gear of choice is that IT fashion classic, the napsack. His slogan of choice is simply: GEEK.

And what do these geeks do? Well they go around giving out CDs with open-source software. For that they get points, and in return they receive things, like GEEK gear. But, from what I can gather the Geek Freedom League is more than that, offering training and building a community of open-source people. Also, watch out for a new website.

I use the Open CD — with the Greek Freedom League branding — very often. It runs parallel but almost seamlessly with Microsoft software. (I have another family member who works at Microsoft, who would wear the term GEEK comfortably as well.)

Also, it is a painless introduction to free word processing, spreadsheet and presentation programmes. They are functional and have an intuitive interface. The most useful piece of software is the PDF writer. Sadly, the Open CD is not longer under active development. But the technology is available from a couple of places, including Ubuntu and Open Disc.

It is a nice addition to what I have available on my computer. And, yes, I know I am a late convert to trying out open-source software. Actually, in my case it is free software as I would not know what to do with code — open or closed. The software works well and that’s what is important.

We could say something about decommodification. But what I really want is a T-shirt with GEEK written on it.