The Media Lounge is a resource for journalists and toaster fundi's. It provides resources for reports and stories about the freedom toaster, for anyone who wants to spread the word!
hi there ,firstly let me say i love the freedom toaster sometimes i just go to have look at it(just joking),i Ubuntu and would like to get Edgy when will it be on the toaster?.I live in George and have been trying to get hold of Charl the guardian but this seems impossible,i want to suggest he moves the toaster to the George library where it could get exposed to more people at the moment it is stuck away in a dark building where it does glow beautifully but thats about it.I am will willing to put in time and effort.Maybe we can set-up a system or two so that people can give Linux a test run and overcome their fears of it.
It would really be nice if there was a list of current toaster software available on the website. That would save a physical visit to the toaster only to find that the software one hoped would be there, is not available...
Some students from Monash have helped us with a system that will allow us to upload and display a content list from each machine. They're busy finishing it off. For the time being I will update the lists by hand.
I'm a student at working at a computer lab on a university campus in the US. I'm interested in possibly building my own Freedom Toaster here. Unfortunately, the "Assembly Manual" PDF doesn't appear to be complete.
*The "Building the Monitor Angle-bracket" section doesn't have the mm specifications.
*step #2 is completely missing
*mm of electical cable in the wiring diagram ??'d out
*Most of the "Assembly" section is missing.
I'd love to see an updated version, and I'd be willing to contribute to the documentation during the build process if that would help.
It'd also be pretty exciting to get one of these up and running on this continent!
Also, just wondering, why isn't there an option for users to create topics in forums?
The assembly manual is still a work in progress. It would be cool to see some designs other than ours :) If you would like to contribute to the manual, then please grab a copy from svn
i got a mandriva 2005 limeted ed DVD and want to install it on my laptop, so as to run at the same time with windows XP home (dual boot i guess). I am clueless as to how i go about doing that, can someone help me out step by step in detail, i m not familliar with installing linux
Has anyone ever thought of using Freedom Toaster beyond OSS? FOr example, it would be cool if you could give some keyworkds for wikipedia and get all pages (plus maybe 2-3 levels of linked pages) burned as static html on a CD. The content of wikipedia is available as db dump and is released under a license that allows redistribution. Besides, there are other open access contents like manuals, some scientific journals etc.
Submitted by DanielBaird on Wed, 2006-05-17 09:17.
It'd be excellent if the site's "Find a toaster" page had subheadings by country. I don't recognise all those city names, so think how hard it must be for any Americans who visit that page :)
We will be adding that feature shortly. In the mean time, you can select to burn Suse 9.3 again, but don't put disks in for the first round. The trays will pop out and it will ask you to put in the remaining 2 disks for isos 4 & 5. At this stage only put a disk in the middle tray, it will burn iso 5 for you.
I was wondering if the distro's on the toaster are updated from time to time - I remember that I got Suse 9.2 from the toaster, and after installing it found that I would have needed to download 200 MB of security updates (including a kernel update) to be able to use it safely. This is not really possible on dialup, so I've given up on updating and just use it offline which makes it pretty limited in usefulness. The only way to avoid this unpleasant experience for toaster users would be to try to keep the software on the toaster up to date, as far as time and resources allow, of course.
Has the latest software been loaded yet - if so, what is new? I'm mainly interested in knowing if software already on is updated to the latest versions as I would like a copy of Debian Sarge with all the latest security updates.
It would be nice if you could put an announcement of exactly what changed somewhere prominent on the site (such as the Toaster Software page).
I checked it out, it's really cool, I setup a local http server on my system threw in the files and presto, I've got a "virtual toaster" on my system! (without all the iso's of course)... couldn't work out the perl scripts though..
I'm concerned that some pages of this site seem to be out of date e.g. the Toaster Software page is dated 24-11-2004; the Toaster Stats page 18-11-2004! The essence of a website like this is current info, please keep posting the latest stuff (of course it may just be the dates that are not updated, in which case you should do that as at present they make it look as though this site started with a rush of enthusiasm, and then died).
Thanks for your comment Fritz. Yes, the site is kept regularly updated. The date that you have mentioned, is actually the date that the page was first created. The date does not change automatically when new info is added. However, I have changed the dates manually. The stats are indeed quite old. We are at the moment, gathering the latest stats and they will be on the site as soon as possible. Lisa
Submitted by com-du-it.com on Sat, 2005-08-13 19:55.
It would be usefull if the list on this website of software available included a) links to the software's homepage (and specifically to the features and inclusions pages) and b) some form of assessment of appropriate usage for each.
I have no idea about Linux or anything else related to it, I simply know what I need software on my PCs to do. To a non technical person Ubuntu, Impi, Mandrake etc all seem to be the same thing.
Thanks for the great suggestion. I will definately start with linking to the homepages of the software we have available on the Toasters. The assesment will take a bit more effort, I'll see what we can do.
Submitted by com-du-it.com on Sat, 2005-08-13 19:47.
In search of the Ubuntu CD I went on a long journey which included the MTN Science Centre in Century City. They offered me the "Go Open Source" CD but made no mention of the Freedom Toaster... now I know and shall go back tomorrow.
p.s. I agree with a features suggestion elsewhere for methods of wirelessly connecting to obtain the software so as not to have to burn CD's... a Blue Tooth dongle costs about R200 which I acquired today.
I have arranged some training for the staff at the Sciencentre. It seems like the 1 or 2 people that knew something about the Freedom Toaster have left.
I'd like to ask my university about paying for one.. Why don't we make a marketing pamphlet with templates ready to convince why universities need one.. Perhaps a wiki would suffice even?
Which university do you attend? We do have a wiki for "Toaster Hosters", that has some basic marketing information. I can send you some material if you would like - e-mail me: jason at tsf.org.za
I also think that the Freedom Toaster is a great project. Kudos for the developers! However, I am a little surprised that the software running the Freedom Toaster is not released under FLOS license.
By releasing the hardware specification *and* the software under FLOS license you could hear not only violins playing in the background but also some fanfares with trumpets. :-)
Release of the software would make it possible for us up here in Finland to start voluntary workshops with young people to build Freedom Toasters for our local needs.
I promise, I will ask if we can locate one Freedom Toaster to the University office where Linus wrote the first lines of Linux kernel.
Another related idea: Inspired by your work (this is how it works!) I have an idea called “Freedom Press�. I wrote about it in the blog at:
First of all let me congratulate you people for promoting FLOSS in a big way. I am from India and saw about your site in Distrowatch.com site and took interest and since last 30 minutes I am in your site only. I have in fact informed my local LUG (Chennai LUG) via mailing list.
One small request - You have given Hardware specs for the inquisitive in the same vein if you provide the software how you have configured for the ordinary people to access the menu and other things. If you could explain that also it will be great. This is only a suggestion and also some of the screen shots of the software and also photos of actual process will be interesting (while people are actually toasting the CDs) and on your website show the things that you are showing on the toasters like All about Open Source etc., I think they are Videos.
Once again a great effort Congratulations and keep it up.
I'd like to look into building/financing at least one for my area.
How much would you estimate the cost of these to be and do you have the design plans online for such reasons?
updates
hi there ,firstly let me say i love the freedom toaster sometimes i just go to have look at it(just joking),i Ubuntu and would like to get Edgy when will it be on the toaster?.I live in George and have been trying to get hold of Charl the guardian but this seems impossible,i want to suggest he moves the toaster to the George library where it could get exposed to more people at the moment it is stuck away in a dark building where it does glow beautifully but thats about it.I am will willing to put in time and effort.Maybe we can set-up a system or two so that people can give Linux a test run and overcome their fears of it.
Software inventory on the website
Hi
It would really be nice if there was a list of current toaster software available on the website. That would save a physical visit to the toaster only to find that the software one hoped would be there, is not available...
Inventory
Some students from Monash have helped us with a system that will allow us to upload and display a content list from each machine. They're busy finishing it off. For the time being I will update the lists by hand.
Possible Freedom Toaster project...
I'm a student at working at a computer lab on a university campus in the US. I'm interested in possibly building my own Freedom Toaster here. Unfortunately, the "Assembly Manual" PDF doesn't appear to be complete.
*The "Building the Monitor Angle-bracket" section doesn't have the mm specifications.
*step #2 is completely missing
*mm of electical cable in the wiring diagram ??'d out
*Most of the "Assembly" section is missing.
I'd love to see an updated version, and I'd be willing to contribute to the documentation during the build process if that would help.
It'd also be pretty exciting to get one of these up and running on this continent!
Also, just wondering, why isn't there an option for users to create topics in forums?
Thanks!
- Janna Fair
IU Computer Lab, Colorado State University
janna.fair@gmail.com
Assembly
The assembly manual is still a work in progress. It would be cool to see some designs other than ours :) If you would like to contribute to the manual, then please grab a copy from svn
cant intall mandriva limited ed 2005
i got a mandriva 2005 limeted ed DVD and want to install it on my laptop, so as to run at the same time with windows XP home (dual boot i guess). I am clueless as to how i go about doing that, can someone help me out step by step in detail, i m not familliar with installing linux
Toaster and Open Access Material
Has anyone ever thought of using Freedom Toaster beyond OSS? FOr example, it would be cool if you could give some keyworkds for wikipedia and get all pages (plus maybe 2-3 levels of linked pages) burned as static html on a CD. The content of wikipedia is available as db dump and is released under a license that allows redistribution. Besides, there are other open access contents like manuals, some scientific journals etc.
Showing toaster locations with countries
It'd be excellent if the site's "Find a toaster" page had subheadings by country. I don't recognise all those city names, so think how hard it must be for any Americans who visit that page :)
Suse 9.3
Yesterday i tried louding this distro but cd5 was not properly burnt, so how do i get the touster to burn only that disc?
www.oyo.co.za
Suse 9.3
We will be adding that feature shortly. In the mean time, you can select to burn Suse 9.3 again, but don't put disks in for the first round. The trays will pop out and it will ask you to put in the remaining 2 disks for isos 4 & 5. At this stage only put a disk in the middle tray, it will burn iso 5 for you.
Are the distros updated?
I was wondering if the distro's on the toaster are updated from time to time - I remember that I got Suse 9.2 from the toaster, and after installing it found that I would have needed to download 200 MB of security updates (including a kernel update) to be able to use it safely. This is not really possible on dialup, so I've given up on updating and just use it offline which makes it pretty limited in usefulness. The only way to avoid this unpleasant experience for toaster users would be to try to keep the software on the toaster up to date, as far as time and resources allow, of course.
Fritz Meissner
Yes they are
We have a 3-4 month update cycle. You can expect the next updates at the end on November.
Has the November update happened ?
Has the latest software been loaded yet - if so, what is new? I'm mainly interested in knowing if software already on is updated to the latest versions as I would like a copy of Debian Sarge with all the latest security updates.
It would be nice if you could put an announcement of exactly what changed somewhere prominent on the site (such as the Toaster Software page).
Fritz Meissner
Wine
I would like to know more about Wine and the implementation thereoff on Linux.
Wine
Check out http://www.winehq.com/
The software
What you see is what you get. It's just a bunch of clever Perl scripts and some html. I'll put up some more details soon.
Cool
I checked it out, it's really cool, I setup a local http server on my system threw in the files and presto, I've got a "virtual toaster" on my system! (without all the iso's of course)... couldn't work out the perl scripts though..
How up-to-date is this site?
I'm concerned that some pages of this site seem to be out of date e.g. the Toaster Software page is dated 24-11-2004; the Toaster Stats page 18-11-2004! The essence of a website like this is current info, please keep posting the latest stuff (of course it may just be the dates that are not updated, in which case you should do that as at present they make it look as though this site started with a rush of enthusiasm, and then died).
Fritz Meissner
Updated dates
Software links and features
It would be usefull if the list on this website of software available included a) links to the software's homepage (and specifically to the features and inclusions pages) and b) some form of assessment of appropriate usage for each.
I have no idea about Linux or anything else related to it, I simply know what I need software on my PCs to do. To a non technical person Ubuntu, Impi, Mandrake etc all seem to be the same thing.
How do I choose?
Software links and features
Thanks for the great suggestion. I will definately start with linking to the homepages of the software we have available on the Toasters. The assesment will take a bit more effort, I'll see what we can do.
They didn't know
In search of the Ubuntu CD I went on a long journey which included the MTN Science Centre in Century City. They offered me the "Go Open Source" CD but made no mention of the Freedom Toaster... now I know and shall go back tomorrow.
p.s. I agree with a features suggestion elsewhere for methods of wirelessly connecting to obtain the software so as not to have to burn CD's... a Blue Tooth dongle costs about R200 which I acquired today.
They didn't know
I have arranged some training for the staff at the Sciencentre. It seems like the 1 or 2 people that knew something about the Freedom Toaster have left.
Marketing
I'd like to ask my university about paying for one.. Why don't we make a marketing pamphlet with templates ready to convince why universities need one.. Perhaps a wiki would suffice even?
What are your thoughts?
Marketing
Which university do you attend? We do have a wiki for "Toaster Hosters", that has some basic marketing information. I can send you some material if you would like - e-mail me: jason at tsf.org.za
Free the Freedom Toaster!
I also think that the Freedom Toaster is a great project. Kudos for the developers! However, I am a little surprised that the software running the Freedom Toaster is not released under FLOS license.
By releasing the hardware specification *and* the software under FLOS license you could hear not only violins playing in the background but also some fanfares with trumpets. :-)
Release of the software would make it possible for us up here in Finland to start voluntary workshops with young people to build Freedom Toasters for our local needs.
I promise, I will ask if we can locate one Freedom Toaster to the University office where Linus wrote the first lines of Linux kernel.
Another related idea: Inspired by your work (this is how it works!) I have an idea called “Freedom Press�. I wrote about it in the blog at:
http://flosse.dicole.org/?item=we-need-a-freedom-press
We would love to hear your comments on it.
Best regards,
- Teemu
http://www2.uiah.fi/~tleinone
It is free
Toaster repository:
http://kodekraal.coco.co.za/svn/toaster/
read-only users login as "anonymous" password
"anonymous"
Congratulations
First of all let me congratulate you people for promoting FLOSS in a big way. I am from India and saw about your site in Distrowatch.com site and took interest and since last 30 minutes I am in your site only. I have in fact informed my local LUG (Chennai LUG) via mailing list.
One small request - You have given Hardware specs for the inquisitive in the same vein if you provide the software how you have configured for the ordinary people to access the menu and other things. If you could explain that also it will be great. This is only a suggestion and also some of the screen shots of the software and also photos of actual process will be interesting (while people are actually toasting the CDs) and on your website show the things that you are showing on the toasters like All about Open Source etc., I think they are Videos.
Once again a great effort Congratulations and keep it up.
Ravi Kumar Tenneti
Chennai, India
Thanks
Good suggestions. I'll arrange a howto document describing what needs to be done to setup a Freedom Toaster from scratch.
Estimated cost and design plans
I'd like to look into building/financing at least one for my area.
How much would you estimate the cost of these to be and do you have the design plans online for such reasons?
Thanks.
Estimated cost
I'll have that information available shortly.
Plans & costs
Hello,
I'd also be interested in getting this information or seing is publically available.
Cheers,
--
Fabian Rodriguez
http://www.fabianrodriguez.com
bloody marvelous :-)
Thanks!