Fifteen cities and towns across Australia will stage events and give away free software to mark Software Freedom Day on September 10, the vice-president of the local coordinating body, Linux Australia, said.
Pia Waugh said today about 100 people would be involved nationwide and they expected to be able to reach about 4000 members of the public. This is the first time Australia is marking the day.
The first Software Freedom Day was held last year and events were organised in nine countries.
This year, activities will be held in Melbourne; Sydney and Coffs Harbour; Adelaide; Brisbane, Townsville, Bundaberg and Nhulunbuy; Canberra; Darwin; Perth; Hobart, Penguin and Queenstown.
Waugh said giveaways would include CDs from SoftwareFreedomDay.org, the organisation which co-ordinates the event globally.
Canonical, a company run by South African Mark Shuttleworth which makes the Ubuntu Linux distribution, will provide CDs which contain a live version of Ubuntu.
Another CD, called the OpenCD, containing a large amount of free and open-source software for a number of platforms will also be distributed.
In Melbourne, the day will be celebrated from 11am to 5pm at ComputerBank Victoria (483 Victoria Street, West Melbourne, near Dryburgh Street) with demonstrations of free and open-source software.
There will be a special area for youngsters where they can play games and use educational software suitable for 6 to 12-year-olds.
In Sydney, there will be events at Pitt Street, followed by an installfest at the University of Technology. Events are also scheduled at Fort Street High School. Macquarie University is planning a seminar earlier in the week to show students the opportunities available through open-source software.
The Brisbane event is likely to be an open-air market, while in Canberra, volunteers will distribute CDs to government offices and schools.