FSFE supporters Vienna

Due to the Corona lock down we couldn’t man the traditional information stall at any Veganmania summer festival in Vienna in 2020. So we where pleased that from 27 to 29 August 2021 we were able to be present on one again. Officially, about 12.500 people visited the event each day this time and we had many encounters with people eager to hear our arguments for free software. Many hadn’t even heard about free software before. Others knew about open source or Linux. And of course we also met many people who already use free software at home or at work. In fact, maybe even more than ever before on those information stalls – except of course for those on our local Linux Week events.

Weather

On the first day we needed to pull out our plastic cover for our information material twice because short bursts of rain challenged our intent to inform people about independence on their own electrical devices. Unfortunately, we do not have a tent for this purpose yet. (It would be rather expensive and might prohibit us from being able to transport everything we need at once on a bicycle.) But fortunately, the weather remained stable for the rest of the weekend. Over all we had mostly ideal weather conditions since in previous years the summer heat was almost unbearable at times. This weekend, staying for hours in the open wasn’t an issue at all.

People and safety

Maybe due to the fact that people hadn’t been to such events for quite some time, it was was very well attended. Despite the huge interest, the organisers kept everyone safe by closing off the area and only letting people in who could show a recent negative Corona test or who already could prove they were immunised either by having recovered from the infection or by being fully vaccinated.

We often had to answer the question why the FSFE of all organisations was present on an event focusing on veganism. We gladly explained our reasoning: Most people chose a vegan life style in order to protect the well being and rights of those not having the power to protect themselves. If you transfer the same reasoning into information technology you end up with free software because there as well, the main concern is protecting the rights of all users and to ensure fair conditions for everyone.

Information material

Once more our information materials proved to be useful for this not usually very technical audience. Especially our introduction leaflet to the idea for freedom in technology and our locally produced practical overview of well known distributions came in very handy. In addition, the guide for email encryption and the stickers and post cards with motives like: “I love free software, but I love you more …”, “There is no cloud, just other peoples computers.” and some other funny freedom related stickers found many happy new owners.

A short time ago I found the domain distrotest.net and was very pleased by how easy this web page makes it to explore different free software distributions. It is simply fun to quickly test many desktops by starting virtual machines directly in your browser. The people I told about it, obviously liked this prospect too. I will certainly include a link to this in future versions of our distribution overview leaflet.

Another well received leaflet we hadn’t had on our desk in previous years was a short practical guide on computer security for activists. In this we didn’t go into complicated advanced stuff but rather very practical things everybody can do to improve the trustworthiness of their used system. It elaborates on 12 very basic things like creating backups and using a password manager or using software as a service only if there is no other possible way of doing things. It also explains why relying on well known centralised social media platforms can be especially dangerous if you want to challenge powerful institutions as an activist.

In addition we made good use of our little local online list of free software experts on freie.it who are ready to help out in case people lack the time or patience to dig through the extensive amount of online documentation and guides if they get stuck at any point in their adventure into the joyful free software world.

Thanks

I want to thank the very knowledgable volunteers who spontaneously dropped by and helped me to man the FSFE stand this time. Even if there wasn’t much opportunity to talk to each other they did a fabulous job at taking care of those who wanted to learn more about our common cause: free software.