Recently, I started working with my good friend and fellow LinuxMusicians.com administrator Matt Ashton to promote some of my acoustic/singer-songwriter projects. Matt runs a cool indie label for Christian musicians called Autumn Street Records, and provides free services like booking, web-design, and even some mixing and mastering help.

From the website:

Our label represents bands and solo artists alike. We also represent a family of musicians. The vision of ASR is to bring together artists and producers who can work together and promote each other’s music productions.

A great thing about Matt and his vision for ASR is his emphasis on ASR as an open organization. An obvious commitment to open file formats, DRM-free monetization strategies, and free software (stuff like Audacity, Ardour, & GIMP) are all things that make me excited to work with ASR to promote my music and the music of others that have a similar vision.

Check out my ASR profile here.

It’s Software Freedom Day 2009! Many of you know I love me some open source software…and today is great day to learn more if you’re at all interested. From the official Software Freedom Day Website:

In an increasingly digital age, more and more of our everyday experiences depend upon software. Software influences how we interact with each other, enjoy different media, vote, get paid, and even navigate our roads. Software underpins our very way of life, our basic freedoms such as freedom of association, freedom of thought, freedom of choice and much more, yet many people do not realise the importance and influence of software and other technologies on their lives.

What do we mean by Software Freedom? Software Freedom is about a technology future that we can trust, that is sustainable, and that doesn’t negatively impact on the basic human freedoms we take for granted. Untrusted electoral systems can lead to civil unrest and a lack of trust in governing bodies. Spyware that watches what we listen to, our banking details and who we email can be installed on our computers without our knowledge. Region encoding of movies introduces an artificial barrier to the international content; where is our personal choice? Proprietary data formats can mean lockout to accessing our own information! Software Freedom can be maintained by transparent systems (such as Free and Open Source Software) that are based on open, secure and sustainable standards including data formats and communication protocols.

Software Freedom Day is a yearly celebration of Software Freedom and why it is important; our purpose is public education about these important issues.

If you’d like to learn about why I like free software and the free software that I use most, check out my Choose Freedom essay, and my Top 10 Reasons I Use Linux post. Did you know companies like Google and (gasp!) Apple leverage lots of free software to make their products? Google literally couldn’t exist without its vast computer farms running Linux, and Apple depends on free software for such basic functions as printing, networking, and web-browsing.

Here are some quick links to some my favorite free software projects:

• Ubuntu – a free operating system that can replace Windows or Mac OS
• MuseScore – a music notation editor that’s helping me complete my master’s degree in music theory and composition
• OpenOffice – the free office suite that has saved me lots of time and money!
• Firefox – the best browser around
• WordPress – the blogging software that is now the industry standard
• The Sword Project – Free Bible study software and tools

All of this software is available completely free of charge, runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers (even Ubuntu can be tested on a Windows or Mac computer without changing a thing about your existing configuration), and is free as in speech. Why not try some of it out?

Today is great day of celebration of how far free software has come…I hope you’re able learn something about the fun, power, and importance of free software. If you have questions or thoughts, feel free to leave a comment!

I go over some of this in my “Choose Freedom” essay, but I thought I’d take a moment and write up my top reasons for using the operating system that I do. This is  inaugural post for the “Linux” category!

1) Freedom. Yeah I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times…freedom rules. Since Linux and most associated software is open source and free of charge, I can do what I want with it. Modify it, give it away, start a business, sell it, whatever.

2) Community. I love being part of something bigger than myself. Being part of the Linux community is more than a club of people that use the same the product…it is a group of individuals that combine to create something themselves and each other. I may be hippie for this, but I just love the idea of everybody pitching in to create something useful for the whole.

3) Security. No viruses. Frequent security updates. Easy-to-use encryption software. Out-of-the-box encrypted home folder on new Ubuntu installs. It doesn’t get much safer or more secure than Linux, folks.

4) Quality & breadth of software. Some of the best software in the world in birthed on Linux. Pro-quality audio? Got it. World-class office productivity? It’s there. Music notation and Photoshop-class image manipulation? Not quite there yet, but well on the way (with near replacements ready now). All free of charge, and with the opportunity to have your voice heard in the development process. Love it.

5) Ease of use. Yeah, Linux used to be power-users only…and I find nothing to be ashamed of there. But these days, it’s coming pre-installed by Dell, HP, and others, and is so easy for basic tasks that pretty much any one can use it. GNOME and KDE (the two main graphical interfaces) both provide great, consistent user interfaces that are easy to learn and use.

6) Constant innovation. New and creative ideas are constantly flowing from the Linux camp, from combining sticky notes with a personal wiki, to radical changes in the way we do computing, to unique ways of installing the operating system…it never stops.

7) Customizability. Almost anything can be customized on the Linux desktop…it works the way I actually want it to, not how customer panels and research groups think I’ll want it to.

8) Frequent release cycle. Improvements are happening all the time, and many Linux distributions release every six months. How long did you have to wait for a new Windows version, again?

9) It can be as light or as heavy as you like. Run it on 5 year old computer, or the latest in quad-core technology. It doesn’t matter…Linux can make pieces of junk valuable productivity machines, and make the latest hardware look awesome.

10) It runs most of the world’s super-computers. Need I say more?

Why do you use Linux?

Looking to get started with Linux? I recommend Ubuntu.