The Alternative

We are students of 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).

This semester, we organize REPLICATE: Events
to help you use and produce Free and Open
Science, Hardware, Software and File Formats.

guides: installation bash | courses

Some of our REPLICATE events need sufficient registrations before they are officially announced. Register for and promote your favorite events at events.thealternative.ch to help make them happen!

Introduction to Linux

Wed 14.04.2021 17:15 - 19:00 | Online | register

The course will be broadcast online

In this course you will learn about the wide family of free operating systems based on the Linux kernel, some of the most useful software tools available for them, as well as the philosophy that made them so successful.

Find out how easy to use and yet powerful Linux systems are, discover their advantages when compared to other operating systems, and get to understand their basic structure and most important concepts.
Furthermore, discover different flavours of Linux and get a feeling for which distribution and desktop environment would be the right match for you.

Linux Toolbox

Fri 16.04.2021 17:15 - 19:00 | Online | register

The course will be broadcast online

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.

Web

Mon 26.04.2021 17:15 - 19:00 | Online | register

The course will be broadcast online

This is a crash course into web development. Do you want to create your own personal (research?) webpage, customize a theme, or event want to become a web developer? This will help you to get started.

We will introduce HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP and add some design / user experience on the way. You need no prior knowledge, and need not to be a programmer (although we will of course write code)!

view past events

President
Nicolas König

Vice-President
Alexander Schoch

Events
Nils Leuzinger

Sponsoring
Florian Moser

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 because 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 being able to open your files (because the 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]; 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 "normal" people using the system to avoid suspicion [Twitter].