A USB stick to expose open-source in France

Monday, February 05, 2007

Open-source developers have one problem to overcome when they distribute their products: visibility. Often they rely on the open-source enthusiasts to spread the world about their software but this approach takes some time. Some open-source products like Firefox even bought a newspaper page to increase their visibility and were successful.

As enterprises and governments start to use open-source alternatives however this problem is reducing its “weight”. A great solution adopted to promote the use of open-source products is the one employed by French authorities. Friday it was announced that 175,000 USB memory sticks containing open-source products will be handed out to high-school students.

The software on the USB stick will include open-source alternatives to the most used products and for most students it will be their first exposure to open-source products. Considering that the open-source alternatives included in the USB stick receive any year important awards, this is also a great publicity for the open-source movement.

Thanks to the USB stick the students will therefore know that there are some really great open-source products available (for free) on the net. This, according to the speaker that introduced the USB stick idea, will reduce the software piracy issue. Why take some risks with pirated software when you can have, for free, a better or equivalent open-source product?

If this USB stick initiative will be successful we really look forward to other authorities to follow the French example. The cost of a USB stick is very low and there is a lot of space on these USB devices to include all the most used open-source products available.

Vive open-source products and the USB stick too!