The Freedom Toaster

I'm a bit puzzled by this sudden article, it's years late :p
I haven't noticed any recent activity on the Freedom toasters? Take a look at the forums on the FT site, the most recent posts are nearly two years ago..

PE had a Freedom Toaster for a while, it was nice while it lasted, but frankly it didn't last very long.. I used it a few times, the last few times I tried it was always out of order. As far as I know it no longer exists. :(

Not that a renewed interest in the Freedom Toaster wouldn't be nice.. :)
 
According to http://www.freedomtoaster.org/



Toaster Locations: Port Elizabeth
Port Elizabeth

There is one freedom toaster in PE:

(remember to use an @ when e-mailing the contact person)


Bay FM
The Bridge shopping centre
Port Elizabeth
Contact: Andrew Higgs - andrew (at) higgs.co.za
 
The freedom toaster is a bust in durban since its located INSIDE the science thingy at gateway which costs like R50 to get in...
 
redarrow said:
I'm a bit puzzled by this sudden article, it's years late :p
I haven't noticed any recent activity on the Freedom toasters? Take a look at the forums on the FT site, the most recent posts are nearly two years ago..

PE had a Freedom Toaster for a while, it was nice while it lasted, but frankly it didn't last very long.. I used it a few times, the last few times I tried it was always out of order. As far as I know it no longer exists. :(

Not that a renewed interest in the Freedom Toaster wouldn't be nice.. :)
Click to expand...
I found the same with the ones in Cape Town. The one at UCT was better looked after because they have a guy in the office nearby, but the software was always old. I heard they were putting in some USB sockets to make it more reliable. Anyone know if this is done yet?
 
Freedom Toaster

I find this technology absolutely fascinating, and while broadband is extremely price restrictive in South Africa, this will obviously all change when SEACOM deploys its fibre obtic cable infrastructure in June this year. ICASA has also handed out ECNS licences to over 400 telcos. So this year will be seeing huge changes in the telecommunications environment and the price of bandwidth is expected to come significantly.
However, I would like to see how the Freedom Toaster will take advantage of this impending trend. And where and when will the public be able to purchase one of these devices?
 
don't know my way round Linux that well, but isn't Toast a popular cd-burning app on OSX?
 
This is really old... Remember about this a year or so ago... Can someone tell us why this is published now? Has something changed or something..
 
lexor said:
According to http://www.freedomtoaster.org/



Toaster Locations: Port Elizabeth
Port Elizabeth

There is one freedom toaster in PE:

(remember to use an @ when e-mailing the contact person)


Bay FM
The Bridge shopping centre
Port Elizabeth
Contact: Andrew Higgs - andrew (at) higgs.co.za
Click to expand...
That is where the PE toaster used to be, however as far as I know BayFM isn't even at The Bridge centre anymore..
 
There's also a Freedom Toaster in the CS building at Tuks... (been there for a couple of years now).
 
They seriously need to start deploying more of these things and placing them in malls / shopping centres. People pay R5 for parking and likewise paying R5 for the latest Ubuntu ISO would go down well with the public imo
 
gpe said:
They seriously need to start deploying more of these things and placing them in malls / shopping centres. People pay R5 for parking and likewise paying R5 for the latest Ubuntu ISO would go down well with the public imo
Click to expand...
Don't even mention car-parking fees ;). I used to buy something from Checkers in Canal Walk if I ever needed to use the toaster. Now you have to spend over R100 there to get some free parking time.
 
froot said:
There's also a Freedom Toaster in the CS building at Tuks... (been there for a couple of years now).
Click to expand...

Quick correction, it is on the 4th floor of the IT building at Tuks to the right of the Computer Science department. It has been there for the past 5 years about.

Brett actually came and gave the CS department at Tuks a demo of the new toaster on thursday the 22nd. It looks much sleeker than the old version, with a much more intuitive interface and has support for USB drives now as well.

There are still some small bugs to be sorted out, but it looks really awesome. I hope we get the new model :)

You can have a look at the new toasters here: http://breadbin.co.za/
 
Last edited:
I was surprised to see this.

The Freedom Toaster at UKZN (Durban) was my introduction into the Open Source world, especially Linux. I visited it and just downloaded anything I thought would be remotely useful.

While it's a great idea, it has been exceptionally badly managed - to the point where I think that it has done more harm than good. I am surprised that it still has Mark Shuttleworth's name associated with it, because it certainly taints his name, so unprofessional does the entire thing seem.

The last time I visited it, the software was old, the machine was off (plug pulled out) and it was a total waste of time. The one at the gateway I have never visited, because I was not prepared to pay R50 to find out that the software was 2 years old.

As you can see on the forum, one of the last posts was from myself more than 2 years ago! The forum seems to have been penetrated by Spambots peddling sex sites, so.........Also, if you have a forum that asks people to ask questions to get help, and years go by without it - what kind of message does it send about the level of professionalism of the people behind it who should be supporting the forum?

I am a passionate Linux and Open Source supporter, and am glad that the Freedom Toaster introduced me to the world of Free Software, but the entire project is now just a disgrace.

Sorry, but that's what it is. And you'd think they'd spruce the site up or something before releasing a story in the media - but no......It seems bizarre that the project is in a mess precisely when there is a media splash about it. Not exactly putting the best foot forward.....
 
Sackboy said:
Don't even mention car-parking fees ;). I used to buy something from Checkers in Canal Walk if I ever needed to use the toaster. Now you have to spend over R100 there to get some free parking time.
Click to expand...

Yes, Checkers don't get it. Pick and Pay still redeems the voucher and doesn't matter how much you have bought. Guess where I do my shopping now.

Freedom toaster in canal walk works well and has usb thumb drive support. I would like which software is on the machine before I go there and even better, have a newsletter/RSS updates on when new software is uploaded.
 
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