Olympic Softworks is a non-profit organization focusing on GNU/Linux advocacy and training.

We feel advocacy for Free Software in general and GNU/Linux in particular can be achieved best by addressing 3 areas:

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General Advocacy: Build more awareness of the quality and quantity of Free Software and GNU/Linux. Specifically the Ubuntu distribution of GNU/Linux with it's vast and secure software repositories, brand awareness, and the solidity of it's LTS releases. No other company has gotten more behind the software and the community, nor has any company worked to get as many developers as possible united with a single vision and put out good money and developer time to help the community succeed.

This site can provide fast access to useful information for people interested in Free Software and GNU/Linux. People who are curious about things like: What is Linux? What is Free Software? What does it mean to me? How is it different from what I'm using now? What is the big deal? Is it hard to use? How much does it cost? Where do I get it? These kinds of questions and more are asked every day by people thinking about a better way to use their computer. The easier we make the answer to these kinds of questions to find, and the more understandable we make the answers, the more people we will be able to reach.

These kinds of questions are pretty easy to answer really, and they are best answered in plain English. Links to other well known sites, and news services when possible are good. There are many movies available online as well that can help illustrate major points. This site can help by providing links to some of these "youtube" and "google-video" movies. Some are already referenced in the books section. Opinion pieces and news should go into the blogs area, and other useful content to help people who are new or just new(er) to get more out of their computer using Free Software.

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Specific Training: Our immediate goal is to create video content in a readily available format that shows how simple the operation of a desktop computer running GNU/Linux really is. Our movies will be short, no more than 5 min. But will clearly show how to use a great deal of very effective and popular software.

In the future we want to work with libraries, schools, and businesses to provide places where people can meet regularly to go over topics of the day related to Free Software and to provide an opportunity for training on specific software applications or some of the more technical components of GNU/Linux. We also need to reach out to computer user groups, senior centers, government officials...there are so many areas that could benefit from using software that is secure, rock-solid-stable, and

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Advertising and General Education: To further enable these goals the power of the Drupal Portal are used to give members of the local Free Software community the ability to easily contribute on a site that has purpose and gets exposure. The underlying power of Free Software is in Community; it is our hope that the various functionalities of this site will be well used by people in various ways and this will become a resource the entire Olympia area can be proud of.

We need to really show the general public how powerful and yet simple Free Software is to use, what the real value is to them of using Free Software vs. Proprietary Software, but also that there are competent people they can go to for help and assistance that they can trust.

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Thank you for visiting this site!

If you have any questions on what Olympic Softworks does, or what it can do, please ask! Email us at inbox@olympicsoftworks.org

Likewise if you are well versed in GNU/Linux and/or Free Software and are interested in donating your time to help with this site or advocacy then please email us! Especially if you are local to the south Puget Sound area.