Tech Tuesday will feature Dave Norton, who’s been working in the world of supercomputing for the past 30 years designing, building, and programming some of the world’s largest computers.

Norton will discuss open source software (free downloadable software) for Android operating systems; Chrome and Firefox web browsers, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Google Docs, and challenges to Microsoft Office.

Attendees will learn the genesis of open source software, and where it might be appropriate to use. Different types of open source licenses and the different philosophies behind them will also be discussed. While there are several types of free software licenses, they commonly grant freedom to run the program, to study how the program works, to change the program to do exactly what you need (access to the source code is a precondition of this), and to distribute your modifications to the software.

Attendees will look at some of these programs, learn how to install them using common configuration options, and learn what a virtual machine is and who might benefit from using it.

This workshop put on by Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce is May 7 from 8-9:30am in the chamber’s conference room at 169 Highway 50. It is for members and $15 for prospective members. Reserve a space online.