The Guyana Linux Users Group (GLUG) hosted its second session highlighting computer software can be “free to use, improve and distribute” through Free Open Source Software (FOSS) in Berbice.

GLUG hosted the session in observance of Software Freedom Day at the University of Guyana’s Tain Campus, Corentyne. Students from the Berbice High School and the New Amsterdam Technical Institute were given hands-on tuition programmes such as Ubuntu Linux during a presentation by Michael Dabydeen, a member of GLUG and a PC/LAN Administrator at the Guyana Sugar Corporation.

Dabydeen told Stabroek News that users have to wait for copyrighted companies such as Microsoft to make changes to their software but FOSS is free – though not necessarily free in terms of cost – “to use, improve and distribute….” He said the session aims to inform users about the software, to demonstrate how the free programmes (which can also be accessed online) are used and to prove that they are a better solution. According to Dabydeen, the Ubuntu and LinuxMint software consist of over 100 programmes or an entire operating system on one disc. Dabydeen said the software features open source programmes that are compatible in window installation. Free samples of software built by the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society were also distributed “for persons to try at home.”

A roster of other resource persons including Network Administrator at Tain Campus Michael Williams gave a presentation on security issues and the use of firewalls and Vidyaratha Kissoon gave an address on creating websites using Drupal. Malisa Richards of the Kuru Kuru Co-operative College highlighted e-learning in Guyana while Lenandler Singh, a Computer Science lecturer at the campus focused on application and usefulness. The first session in Berbice was held last month at the Central Corentyne Secondary School.