Andy Oram

We're updating the popular 150-page Introduction to the Command Line. What do you think should be in the new edition? We'll be discussing content and process for updating this important work.

A product of a partnership between the FSF and Floss Manuals, this book gives new computer users a gentle, beginner's window onto Bash, vim, a few scripting languages, and other key tools offered on the Unix/GNU command line. A lot has happened since the book was released in 2009. We want to include new developments without substantially increasing the length of the book.

The session will present an overview of the "natural fit" between free software and the values of government agencies in a democracy (transparency; openness; participation and empowerment; cost-savings; collaboration), and then proceed to discuss recent successes -- and persistent challenges -- in the campaign to get public-sector organizations to adopt, accommodate -- and ideally support and create -- free software tools and open standards.