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Olympic Softworks is a non profit organization being set up in Olympia in Washington state for the purpose of providing free computers to people and other organizations that need them, educating the public about the benefits of Free and Open Source Software, and helping to spread the use and appreciation of the GNU/Linux platform.

We will accomplish this by taking in older machines and recycling them by wiping their hard drives and installing GNU/Linux onto them. Making sure they have the following functions: Network, Video, Sound, and hopefully a working Modem. We will also provide training in how to use and maintain the machine and it's software free of charge. We believe that Ubuntu GNU/Linux is the best choice for these machines and proudly us it exclusively.

Olympic Softworks email address is [mailto:olympicsoftworks@gmail.com]

Dave Thompson teaches a class on GNU/Linux at the Free School non-profit site in down town Olympia. Every friday from 7-9pm. The school is located at 610 Columbia St SW in Olympia, Wa. 98501. Following is a Google Map link: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&time=&date=&ttype=&q=610+Columbia+St+SW,+Olympia,+Thurston,+Washington+98501,+United+States&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=87.284425,104.941406&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=0,47.042773,-122.902574&z=16&iwloc=addr&om=1

The following few paragraphs are taken directly from [http://www.gnu.org]. Due to the importance of these 4 concepts, I copied this verbatim. I wanted to keep the wording, and therefore the meaning exact. In true hacker fashion the numbering begins at element number 0, the first element in any array.

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Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer.

Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:

• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
• The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
• The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

A program is free software if users have all of these freedoms. Thus, you should be free to redistribute copies, either with or without modifications, either gratis or charging a fee for distribution, to anyone anywhere. Being free to do these things means (among other things) that you do not have to ask or pay for permission.

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Some good videos from You Tube by featuring 3d Desktops, a great Richard Stallman video on FOSS software, the IBM 'Linux Child' videos, and the 3 Red Hat ones

[http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6E57DA1A9DE8DCC0]

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And a good hour long documentary about Free Software called: The Code, Linux This is a Norwegian documentary, but the vast majority of it is in english. It opens with the classic 2 minute long Software as Recipe comparison given by Richard Stallman.

[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3498228245415745977]