[Fsfe-uk] Parliament: someone to demonstrate some bling?

[Alex Hudson]

Hi all,

(You go for weeks without a post, and then two come along at once...)

A little while ago, AFFS sent in a response to an All-party
Parliamentary Internet Group consultation on DRM and things, which
resulted in the not-bad report we saw a little while ago. It seems that
we're now on their mailing list, which is a good thing I suppose.

I just got an invite for what seems to be a pretty long all-day meeting,
as I'm sure others here may have done, entitled "Parliament and the
Internet". The opening paragraphs:

        "The conference will bring together leading figures from
        Government, Parliament, academia and industry to discuss and
        debate the most pressing policy issues facing the Internet. 
        
        "The day will begin with a demonstration of Microsoft’s new
        operating system, Windows Vista (at 9.30am)"
        
Le petit sigh, etcetera [1].

I suspect that this meeting would be useful for a variety of reasons,
partly so we can get a sniff of upcoming "internet policy" (which they
want to discuss), and to make new contacts and stuff. But, what I'd
_really_ like to do is to lever APIG into allowing someone to come along
and demonstrate a current well-tuned GNU/Linux system alongside Windows
Vista.

Hence the bling of the subject. While Vista no doubt runs many
applications and is useful for many common-or-garden internet tasks, I
suggest that the main "wow!" of this demonstration will be snazzy
graphics which make people drool and make people think it is great. This
is, however, nothing that SLED, or Fedora, or similar (not _totally_
sure about other OSes - edgy Ubuntu can, but that's not really for show
yet) can't do. Fedora being the preferable 'most free' candidate I can
think of.

Now, I know this is possible with free software, because the windows on
my desktop wobble and fade and spin with the best of them, and I'm not
using proprietary 3D drivers. Promise.

However, I can't go, cos I will be in the States. So, is anyone here:

     1. able to put together a snazzy demo box (preferably, they already
        have aiglx/compiz/whatever running) which can showcase top Free
        Software applications (Firefox 2.0, OpenOffice.org 2.0, etc.
        etc.) to attempt to torpedo MS' presentation?
     2. willing to represent AFFS to attend this thing? I know that
        there aren't many of us in London, and fewer able to take a day
        off of work middle of October. But there seems to be free food
        and drinks in it.

Obviously, I can't promise that we can present a free OS. But, at least
if I have a volunteer, we can then attempt to put some pressure on them.
Other good ideas extremely welcome.

Cheers,

Alex.