How I became a Linux fan 

Mozilla as a delicious starter!

The Libre-Fan Web site, written and designed by the author of the same name - in lower-case and without a hyphen, libre fan - was launched at the time when Mozilla Parties were being set up all over the world back in November 2004, to celebrate the release and success of Mozilla-Firefox Preview and 1.0 versions.

As the MozParty2 Web site invited all and sundry to join in I was tempted to organize a party in a rather remote area in the Cévennes, France - though not quite the backwoods.

Though a MozParty at the "Village Cévenol" will never be as famous as John Coltrane playing at the Village Vanguard years ago, still it did take place - on a bright sunny Sunday (23 November 2004) at Aumessas!

True I had been been using Linux for about six months, but I beleive my being a Mozilla fan since I hit upon Mozilla 1.0, around 2001, made me aware of libre software (as they say in English) and gave me the incentive to move to Linux.

The picture was made while getting ready for the MozParty.

More on the MozParty on Libre-Fan:

• Mozilla Party, Firefox 1.0, Aumessas, Ankara


• Mozilla Party at the "Village Cévenol"
  - Aumessas, Cévennes, France


• If you'd rather read the French original article, here it is:
  Mozilla Party cévenole - Compte-rendu

Libre fan is a proud registered Linux-user 

Any one can join the Linux band waggon and be happy!

You've got a Linux distro at home or you use Linux daily at your work place? -- lucky you! Feel free to register as a Linux-user -- it's free like freedom and free beer :-)

Linux Counter - Get yourself (and your computer) counted among the Linux users

If my memory serves me, I installed my first Linux and Debian-based distribution in November 2003: It was Libranet, now extinct, which was excellent and very easy to use for a newbie. So my first steps into the Linux world were smooth and easy. I installed Libranet on my own, and even had dual boot with MS Windows98Se.

Now I'm running a minimal version of Debian Etch + Sid, and Xubuntu Dapper, a lighter version of Ubuntu, and there's enough space left for Puppy Linux which I'll install next month.

Debian and Xubuntu occupy no more than 1.4 Go (OS and software). Puppy Linux, based on no others, is an even tinier distro which works wonders, and is packed with very good software such as Inkscape, a vector graphics editor similar to Adobe Illustrator. Puppy Linux is a 60 MB download, and it's free as freedom and free beer, and well-adapted for newbies.

So you can have three different Linux distros on one small hard disk -- mine is as small as 8 GB! Ain't Linux great?

Libre-Fan Latest 

My website on Mozilla, Linux, and all things free as freedom

Fetching RSS feed... please stand by

Closely related links 

Libre-Fan

Libre-Fan in the original: A Web site on Mozilla, libre software, Linux and free culture.

Libre-Fan sur Squidoo: Linux et le Libre

It says it all. This is a sibling page on Squidoo but in French

Libres-Ailé(e)s, Association pour Linux et le monde du Libre

Libres-Ailé(e)s is a young Linux user group set in a rural area in the south of France (Cévennes).

Squidoo is great fun with Firefox! 

This is not flattery!

Squidoo gets a bit addictive, mind you. Give it a try and you're hooked.

Though I am used to building web sites with the help of CMS (Content Manager Systems) such as Drupal or WordPress,or Plume CMS which I enjoy because they give you both a good framework and the freedom to make important changes to suit your tastes or needs, I also enjoy making lenses on Squidoo.

Squidoo's easy as pie and flexible enough, and it's nice to get a little publicity after you've been working long and hard on a project and a Web site. ;-)

I wish other languages than English were offered. Accented characters look pretty scary in some modules, especially in the guest book, and in the poll modules -- though I know the HTML entities for them, visitors may not. And also if your name has an accented letter, it won't get displayed correctly at times.

As a browser I'd recommend using Firefox which is updated regularly, and therefore safer than the one from MS if you're on MSWindows, and which is optimized for up-to-date webmasters and respectful of Web standards (W3C recommendations). Check out my Squidoo Lens about Firefox: libre fan as Mozilla fan and Firefox user

Considering switching to Linux! 

This isn't mission impossible!

Welcoming MS Windows users to Linux (DestopLinux.com)

A very nice article from Desktop.com explaining the major differences between Linux and Windows and smoothing the way to Linux.

Let me know how you like this lens or Linux and libre stuff! 

Fell free to post your comments :-)

And stick to the netiquette -- no abusive language, refrain from outpouring hatred, and the like.

New Word of the Day 

Anything goes!

I rather like words, don't you? Freedom, in particular, sounds good, and feels good too!

bulwark: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

bulwark: a protective structure

OpenOffice.org2 in books on Amazon 

A selection made by Amazon.com -- not by libre fan ;-)

They're all books in English. Take you pick!

OpenOffice.org for Dummies

by: Gurdy Leete, Ellen Finkelstein, Mary Leete

Amazon Price: $16.49 (as of 12/02/2008)

Sams Teach Yourself OpenOffice.org All In One (Sams Teach Yourself)

by: Greg Perry

Amazon Price: $29.99 (as of 12/02/2008)

Database Programming with OpenOffice.org Base & Basic

by: Roberto Benitez

Release Date: 09/10/2008

Amazon Price: $33.19 (as of 12/02/2008)

Great Stuff on eBay 

Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by

Elephants Dream on YouTube 

The first animation film ever produced under a free licence (Creative Commons)

New Del.icio.us! 

About Linux