TooMuchGreen

Empowered by the (Mark) Shuttleworth Foundation (as it says in the ad) ‘Freedom Toasters‘ are vending machines created by Breadbin.co.za to burn & distribute a variety of free software in countries where a restrictive and sub par communications infrastructure means reliable downloads just aren’t possible (South Africa for example), just turn up with your CD’s and burn……how cool is THAT..!

“The Shuttleworth Foundation drives social and policy innovation in the fields of education and technology through policy dialogue and practical projects that stimulate fresh thinking and add measurable value. The Foundation is at its core an experiment in open philanthropy and uses new technologies and collaborative ways of working to ensure that every initiative receives the best exposure and resources to succeed”

To touch on a bit of background, throughout the 1990′s Mark Shuttleworth was a contributory developer for the Debain based version of Linux, in 2001 he formed the Shuttleworth Foundation and moved on to form Canonical in 2004, self funding the $10 million development of Ubuntu in 2005. As the second ever space tourist he’s most certainly some guy and this is a great example why choosing Ubuntu means you not only get great software for free, increased stability and reduced TCO across the board but you’re taking a step into a world created for the benefit of all by the mega good guys (it DOES exist).

If you’ve a spare 20 minutes or so you could do a lot worse than check out the Shuttleworth Foundation and Freedom Toaster websites, then you should download Ubuntu and the self build plans for a Toaster.

Imagine one in every town centre, it would certainly be an interesting alternative to PC World or an Apple store, free sotware from a vending machine? Yeah, why not (“Pick us up a pint of milk and some tea bags could you? Oh and a copy of Ubuntu Server too while you’re on…..)