[wellylug] SFD/installfest 20th September

[pcreso at pcreso.com]

I did ask here about interest from WellyLUG about such an event, & my thanks to those who responded, but there was not enough interest to really make the event worthwhile. Kudos to Jethro for taking it further & getting more support from elsewhere. Count me in where I can help.

As you may know, I'm an OpenSuse user these days, & am not that familiar with Fedora or Ubuntu, & frankly, for a genuine installfest, targetting novices & new installs, I'm not sure why Centos is there. As a supposed free Red Hat clone for a server environment, it may be fine for experienced users/administrators, but surely not in a 'fest type event?


Some general comments; Linux is now trivial to install, often easier than Windows these days, so the traditional installfest where experts install Linux on users PC's are not particularly useful.

Many people play with it, look at LiveCD's, etc, & if they require help it tends to be with hardware drivers, modems, WiFi, some USB devices, etc. So I suggest the install component should focus on technical support for such problems, rather than basic installs.

I'm not sure what is intended by Tech Demonstrations, but the point of SFD is generally low-tech, & about apps such as Open Office on Windows as it is Linux. Demos of OpenOffice, & I think Firefox with some of it's plugins, like fireftp, foxytunes, flashgot, and other enhancements like Compiz, etc, all of which make life easier & more fun for the user would be useful.

I think it may be difficult to have one small event which caters to the linux tech capable user, like project hack, and at the same time, does not portray Linux & FOSS to the non or novice user as something for hackers/geeks only. But I hope we can bring it off. 

Cheers,

  Brent


--- On Sun, 8/17/08, Rob van der Linde <robvdl at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Rob van der Linde <robvdl at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [wellylug] SFD/installfest 20th September
> To: "Wellington Linux Users Group" <wellylug at lists.wellylug.org.nz>
> Date: Sunday, August 17, 2008, 9:13 PM
> I can help out with installs, etc.
> 
> On Sun, 2008-08-17 at 17:58 +1200, Jethro Carr wrote:
> > hi all,
> > 
> > Unlimited Potential, NZOSS, SuperHappyDevHouse and
> CWAMedia are holding
> > an event on Software Freedom Day (20th September) to
> promote and
> > encourage the use of OSS.
> > 
> > This event will consist of:
> > * Barcamp
> > * Installfest
> > * Tech demonstrations
> > * ProjectHack - join in to hack on a particular
> project.
> > 
> > Wellylug has been invited to run the installfest
> component of the event,
> > and I have said that I am happy to organise a team to
> run it.
> > 
> > At this stage, we plan to offer Ubuntu, Fedora and
> CentOS distributions,
> > as well as some disks with OSS for Windows. Main focus
> will probably be
> > on Ubuntu (due to the long support life) but Fedora
> and CentOS being
> > available on request.
> > 
> > So - who will be available on the 20th September, and
> is interested in
> > helping out on the day, performing installs, debugging
> wifi and solving
> > other problems?
> > 
> > From previous years I have found that visitors to
> installfests have
> > often managed to install Linux themselves, but need
> some knowledgeable
> > people to fix issues, such as wifi driver problems.
> > 
> > The venue has yet to be decided, but I suspect it will
> be in the CBD
> > somewhere.
> > 
> > 
> > regards,
> > jethro
> > 
> 
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