The biggest thing stopping people from freeing their PCs from Microsoft domination is disbelief. People simply cannot believe they can live without Microsoft.

I'm here to fix that. I will show you truly free, trustworthy software, running your computer, with no risk and no commitment.

The Demo

I have a CD which will run in almost any PC that can boot from CD. You (usually *) get a complete Internet-ready workstation with office software. It won't write anything on your hard drive unless you tell it to; your Microsoft installation is not disturbed. It just uses the CD and memory. When you hit reset, it's gone. All the software is truly free, safe, and reliable. (Currently, the CD contains Knoppix 5.1 But for the purposes of this offer, I reserve the right to substitute any other Debian-based super rescue disk. Ubuntu, perhaps, or a remastered Knoppix with Green political stuff.)

The Offer

If you are doing Green work, I will send you the current Knoppix at my cost. Send me

1. $1.64 in US postage stamps. (That's four times 41 cents.)
2. a sentence or two about what Green work you do. "I demonstrate with the local anti-war group every week" or "I'm an organizer with the Velcro County Greens" on the back of an envelope is good enough.
3. your postal address, phone number, and email address. These will not be shared without your permission in advance.

I'll send you the current Knoppix on CD, and a flyer with some instructions to help you get going.

My postal address is

Cameron Spitzer
1141 Jonesport CT
San José CA 95131 USA

Then what

The Knoppix disk is for fun and education. You can sometimes rescue sick PCs with it. If the PC at the public library is full of viruses and spyware, you can use Knoppix there and be safe. (That is if they'll let you reboot their wormy Microsoft system.) You can amaze and confound the folks at your local computer store. You can create a Persistent Home directory on a USB drive and carry your desk around on your keyring. You can even install a Linux system on a new hard drive with it. But its main function is to put a truly free software system (office suite, Web, email...) in your hands with no commitment and no risk. Seeing is believing.

If you like what you see, you might want to install a more complete and maintainable Linux system on your hard drive. I'll send you the system I use, at my cost, too. If you have high speed Internet access, you just need the first CD in the set. It knows how to get the rest online. If you are on dial-up, you might want the set of 21 CDs or three DVDs. More

I don't have a CD drive

I'll send you Tom's floppy which has a root filesystem and is also bootable. Same terms. It's not as spectacular as Knoppix, but still a useful tool. Works in most PCs with a floppy drive and a 386 or newer processor.

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(Usually) footnote

Knoppix 5.1 won't automatically recognize certain video cards that were very popular in 1991. You might have to type
knoppix xserver=XF86_SVGA Enter at the boot prompt to get working video.

Knoppix 5.1 doesn't have a driver for certain software modems. If you've got one of those, Knoppix won't be able to get you on the Internet.

If Knoppix finds less than about 90 MB of memory, it will ask to make a swap file on your hard drive. If you say no, or it finds less than 50 MB memory, you won't get the full multimedia workstation. In low memory situations Knoppix falls back to a lightweight graphics configuration, or even a plain text console mode. If you have a Microsoft partition with the "NT" type of file system, don't let Knoppix make a swap file on it. The newer MSFT format is still a trade secret, so nobody can guarantee writing files on it without damage.