Talking in Paraná: Free Software philosophy / the Debian project. PS: Want to contribute?

I’m very happy: I was finally able to present a talk at a Free Software conference in Paraná, Argentina — Regina’s hometown. Not only in Paraná, but at the Vieja Usina culture center, half a block away from her parents’ house. So, I must doubly thank Laura: First, for letting us know there would be a Free Software conference there, and second, for taking some pictures :-}

What was this conference? Conferencia Regional de Software Libre, organized by Grupo de Usuarios de GNU/Linux de Entre Ríos (GUGLER). Of course, flying to Argentina (and more specifically, to Paraná, which is ~500Km away from the international airport) just for a one day conference was out of the question — So I gave the talk by videoconference. Of course, given we will be travelling for the December vacations to Argentina, I expect to meet in person the GUGLER guys soon.

I gave a single talk, mixing together two different topics: (my very personal take on) the Free Software philosophy and Debian’s place in the Free Software universe. I had a very good time giving the talk, and while I was unable to look at my audience, I got reports saying they were happy and interested. I even got some mails from them, which makes me quite happy ;-)

Now, one of the recurring points whenever I talk about Debian: I often tell people that I cannot tell them why they should use Debian instead of other distributions. My years testing every distribution I come across are long gone, and I nowadays am familiar with Debian only. But I also tell them that personally I gain nothing by having more Debian users in the world — What I want to achieve is the next logical step: To have more people contributing to Debian. So, here is a great opportunity for interested people, specifically a group that often has a hard time finding a way to collaborate with Free Software projects.

Today, Paul Tagliamonte published a call for proposals for Debian 8 (Jessie)’s artwork. So, given many people always want to find a way to contribute to Free Software without being a coder, here’s a golden opportunity. You can look at the themes sent for Debian 7 as a reference; look also at the technical requirements for your artwork, and… Well, you have until early February to work on it!