The Alternative

We are students at ETH who help you with Linux
at our events and in our office. For free!

Because we love Open Source and Free Software
and want to help you to get started (here's why).

Each semester, we organize events
to help you use and produce Free and Open
Science, Hardware, Software and File Formats.

Join our mailing list to stay up to date!

guides: installation bash | courses

Do you like our talks? Care to support Open Source & Free Software? Come join us at our next Stammtisch! Use the contact form below to let us know you are interested. Or join our mailing list to get informed about upcomming events.

Install Event (ETH)

Thu 30.03.2023 17:30 - 21:00 | Student Project House (Clausiusstrasse 16, 8006 Zürich) | register

This event is a collaboration with Student Project House.

Get started with Linux by installing it on your computer.

Of course, we'll help you: Bring your laptop and charger and we will personally assist you with the installation of Linux as well as with your first steps and basic customization.
You can choose to keep your existing operating system and install Linux next to it.
Still, it's important to back up your data before you come, just to be on the safe side.

You may of course stay longer than the indicated time should we encounter issues with installing Linux on your laptop.

ChromeBooks (all versions), Apple MacBook Pros (after Oct. 2016) and Apple MacBooks (12" model) are not well supported by Linux due to hardware restrictions, and we do not recommend installing Linux on those devices.
If you intend to buy a new laptop to install Linux on, stay away from these devices altogether.

Console Toolkit

Tue 04.04.2023 18:15 - 20:00 | Student Project House (Clausiusstrasse 16, 8006 Zürich) | register

This event is a collaboration with Student Project House.

Linux is well-known for being configurable and fitting many different styles of use. But what can you do with it?
Our goal in the Linux Toolbox course is to introduce a large range of tools and to teach you how you can profit from them. We'll show you typical tasks that Linux is good at, such as renaming hundreds of files, searching and replacing text, automatic downloading etc.. This way, you'll be able to recognize those tasks in the wild and don't have to do them by hand.
Linux has many useful tools, so we don't intend to cover them all in detail. We'll instead take a sweeping glance to cover as many use cases as possible and provide you with learning resources if you want to delve deeper into a topic. Most of the course will take place on the command line, but no prerequisite knowledge is required.

Stammtisch

Wed 05.04.2023 18:15 - 20:00 | CAB E14

Join our Stammtisch! We meet in a casual atmosphere, have a drink and discuss upcoming technical trends.
If you have troubles with Linux, bring your Laptop and we will be glad to help.

Git and GitLab

Tue 18.04.2023 18:15 - 20:00 | Student Project House (Clausiusstrasse 16, 8006 Zürich) | register

This event is a collaboration with Student Project House.

Git is the state-of-the-art version control system, taking away the pain of continuously changing file versions. Keep track of who changed what, when and why, and revert changes easily.
GitLab allows you to save the files to the cloud, giving you a secure backup location and enabling easy collaboration. Never lose your files again, and coordinate changes in even bigger projects with ease.

This course gives you a solid understanding of git and GitLab, including its basic concepts.
We will have exercise breaks where you can apply the concepts at your own pace.

Bash

Mon 24.04.2023 18:15 - 20:00 | Student Project House (Clausiusstrasse 16, 8006 Zürich) | register

This event is a collaboration with Student Project House.

Learn how you can use Bash to program simple scripts that can save you a lot of work. Bash is a scripting language that is designed to interact with other programs and your system easily. Whether you want to backup your newest files to a hard drive or quickly download a lot of PDFs—with Bash, you can do it at a keystroke.

view all upcoming events

view past events

Vice President
Alexander Schoch

Board Member
Nicolas König

Board Member
Jean-Claude Graf

Board Member
Sophie Eisenring

GNU/Linux Enjoyer
Jindřich Dušek

President
Noah Marti

We are graduates and undergraduates from different fields of study. Together, we provide courses and other educational materials for Open Source and Free Software. Our goal is to lower the entry barrier around these topics and simultaneously have fun teaching others!

The Alternative
CAB E14
Universitätsstrasse 6
8092 Zürich

github | gitlab

a part of SSC

Open Source

The term "open source" refers to something people can modify and share because its design is publicly accessible.

opensource.com

Open Source software encourages others to understand how something works exactly: The inner workings of the program are published. Depending on the exact license used, the user may also be allowed to run, modify and distribute the work.

Using Open Source, you can check that the program does not execute something on your device you do not want; like surveilling your activities or stealing your computational power for its own purposes. However, when software is advertised as Open Source, it does not necessarily guarantee the rights to modify and distribute the work.

Examples include Firefox and Python.

Free Software

Free software developers guarantee [...] [that] any user can study the source code, modify it, and share the program.

fsf.org

Free Software guarantees the rights to run, modify and distribute the work. Depending on the exact license used, it may be enforced that all derivative software must also grant the same rights (this is called Copyleft).

Using Free Software, you are allowed to adapt it to your needs; like adding functionality critical to your workflows. If you decide to use a Copyleft license, you can additionally be sure your work will benefit all future users of the software in the same way.

Examples include VLC Media Player and Linux.

Proprietary Software

Only the original authors of proprietary software can legally copy, inspect, and alter that software. To use proprietary software, computer users must agree (...) that they will not do anything with the software that the software's authors have not expressly permitted.

opensource.com

Proprietary Software severely restricts how users can interact with the software running on their device and does not allow them to read, modify or distribute its source code.

Using Proprietary Software, you are in danger to lose functionality critical to your workflow (because the owner chose not to provide it anymore), to no longer be able to open your files (because a filetype is no longer supported) or to pay excessive license fees (because there are no comparable alternatives).

Examples include Windows and Adobe Reader.

Privacy

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation.

Article 12 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

Privacy is fundamental to protect yourself and those around you from manipulation.

Most webpages and programs track anything you do or click. Use Open Source Software and Adblockers to be reasonably sure that you are not a victim of surveillance. Make anonymity the default to avoid making those stand out who must stay anonymous.

Facebook reveals more about your personality than your friends could [Paper], so imagine what your browser history tells about you.
A firm called Cambridge Analytica (and probably many others) use this technique to influence outcomes of elections [Tagesanzeiger].
Edward Snowden used an anonymity service that relies on many "ordinary" people using the system to avoid suspicion [Twitter].

Install Event (ETH)

Console Toolkit

Stammtisch

Git and GitLab

Bash

Stammtisch

Spotlight 1 - Docker

Spotlight 2 - Cryptography: Theory and Practice

Stammtisch

Stammtisch

Stammtisch

Open Source

Free Software

Proprietary Software

Privacy