FSFE supporters Vienna
Reports from the FSFE supporters group in Vienna
FSFE Information stand at Veganmania MQ Vienna 2026
Once more the Veganmania in Vienna at MQ took place at the extended weekend from Thursday June 4 to Sunday 7. And of course – like it has been for many years now – an information stand of the local FSFE supporters was again part of the wide array of stalls all around the subjects of sustainability and climate protection.
An open question for many people there was why an information stand on computer related issues ends up at such a place. We were happy to point out the common ground between veganism and free software since most vegan people are vegan for ethical reasons. They feel that every animal should be allowed to live atonomous without someone else dictadting their lifes (and deaths). And if you apply this thoght to software you end up with free software where the main goal is that all users should be free to decide on their own how they process their data and who they give access to it.
In addition especially nowadays with the hardware requirements of Windows 11 many people are confronted with the problem that they are told they need to buy new hardware if they want to keep using a device that gets security updates despite already owning hardware which is still perfectly functional for their purpose. So many can avoid the need to buy a new computer by just switching to free software instead. This not only saves them money but it is also a good way to avoid e-waste and to protect the environment. Unfortunately, many people still haven’t heard yet about free software and aren’t aware that they can avoid the grip of the dominant software vendors by just installing GNU/Linux on their devices since it is almost impossible to find out about these options when you are not already aware of it. And most people don’t feel competent enough to alter what comes pre-installed on their devices even when learning about this possibility.
The same is true for Android devices. Hardly anyone knows that they might be able to run a system that doesn’t require an Google account and that they could use the F-Droid store to get secure privacy protecting apps for their mobile phones. Many of those few who already know run into the issue of needing certain apps that are only available via Google. Banking apps are mentioned as an issue most requently. We pointed out that they could most likely use tan-generating devices for secure two factor authentication on their computers instead, but banks in Austria usually don’t mention this as an option nowadays. Probably because they have big incentives to push their mobile apps instead so that they can gather much more data from people using those and most likely they would prefer to administer only one option for efficiency reasons. Some banks even refuse to offer an alternative to mobile apps all together. So people can only fall back on paper forms to transfer money.
Our new big banner with some basic information on the purpose of our local supplort initiative freie.it, the FSFE and the four freedoms in general serverd us well since even many people who obviously didn’t want to approach our desk stayed in the distance and were clearly reading it for a while. Many decided to come closer afterwards. It of course did help that our tent was facing the area with desks and benches where people could settle down for a rest, talk, drink and eat what ever they did get at the very busy catering stands further back on the festival area.
To address current concerns we added two more leaflets to our collection of materials. (They are all freely licensed and can therefore be used and changed if the legal notice is adapted to reflect who is responsible for the new version.) One is targeted towards people who don’t want to replace their functioning older hardware much like the international innitative endof10. The other one explores issues with AI, LLMs and AI agents in particular because many people nowadays have already included those technologies into their daily routines without considering the many open questions and unresoved concerns around those tools.
In addition to also talking about some FSFE campaigns like public money, public code and router freedom we also added some information on the fediverse and promoted the local Mastodon instance wien.rocks.
This time up to four motivated volunteers stood behind the information desk and talked to the big amount of people frequenting our little FSFE island over the four day festival. Only on Friday it was colder and somewhat unpleasant with light rain. But even then our new FSFE branded tent kept everything dry and we were able to carry on without interruptions when we in the past would have needed to pack away our information materials. People could even take refuge under our tent and talk with us without getting wet while doing so. Our spot at the festival was lucky and unlucky at the same time: We where right next to a tree which provided welcome shadow. So the teperatures in our tent never reached unpleasant levels. It even did help with protecting us from the rainy bits on Fiday. But on the other hand we had our tent right next to the DJ and especially in the afternoons they turned up the volume so that it was sometimes a challenge to talk and listen over the music background. After four days of this our voices are clearly exhausted.
This year even more people than in the past did already know free software and have an IT background. Many of them do study computer science and went straight for our stickers so that they can decorate their laptops with it. The most loved sticker was actually the small one our newest activist added. It showed a cute little robot with the text: There is no AI, there is just other peoples data
. Other than that we ran out of our leaflet with a small distribution overview on the last day and had to ask people to take a photo of it instead of taking it with them in the end. This leaflet has proven to be especially useful because it gives peole a convenient start for finding a GNU/Linux distribution that fits their needs and liking by providing some differating information and quick links to the pages where they can find the live images and install guides. Of course especially for people who didn’t know anything about free software yet our Freedom leaflet was essential since it is basically the book Free Software, Free Society from Richard Matthew Stallman boiled down to a leaflet. It is a good companion to an other newer leaflet which shows a popup window: This software surveils and hinders me. Unknown people can use my data.
and mouse cursor next to an ok
button and asks the provocative question if people do miss a button to refuse.
Well received was also our local initiative freie.it, which aims to provide support for people willing to try free software but who want to get help from more knowledgable people when doing so.
Frequently trourists dropped by at this central location and could at least collect some stickers in English since we do offer only German leaflets. Of course despite the lack of leaflets in their language we did at least tell them in English what ever they wanted to know about our subject.
In general we often referred to the childrens book “Ada and Zangemann” and had a copy at our desk for people to flip through. We however need to re-stock stickers and some leaflets for our next information desk.
In summary I can only conclude that it was again a very successful information stand and I want to thank all helping hands for their support. I’m looking forward to the next information desk from September 18 to 20 on Donauinsel. We do already have ideas for further improvements on what we are offering.