[Cialug] [Fwd: ubuntu-be.org at computer fairs]

[Daniel.Juliano at wellsfargo.com]

Awesome snippet.

I'm about one more stable release (eft +1) away from putting ubuntu on my folk's computer.  There's still a couple of snags I've had issues with, like wifi, that I'm certain will improve by 7.06 or whenever faun shows up.

=Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: cialug-bounces at cialug.org [mailto:cialug-bounces at cialug.org] On Behalf Of Matthew Nuzum
Sent: Monday, October 23, 2006 9:33 AM
To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group
Subject: [Cialug] [Fwd: ubuntu-be.org at computer fairs]

This was somewhat interesting... snipping most of the article, but thought I'd toss out these few tidbits... Of greatest interest is an apparent run-in with the prototypical grandparent running Linux.
Apparently they do exist.

--
Matthew Nuzum
newz2000 on freenode

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: ubuntu-be.org at computer fairs
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:03:17 +0200
From: Mark Van den Borre <mvdborre at gmail.com>
To: Ubuntu local community team (LoCo) contacts

Hi all,

The past month, ubuntu-be.org volunteers have organised four Ubuntu booths at Dipro computer fairs in Charleroi, Antwerp, Leuven and Liège. Imagine the archetypical computer fair: some technically skilled versus others who think they are (a bit like Hackles versus Preston[1]), end users, cheap CD-r's, new and second hand hardware, fancy PC gadgets.

When interacting with people instead of computer screens, interesting things happen:

* Leuven fair, 14.00. We've almost run out of pressed CD's. If we want to keep handing them out, we'll have to burn copies ourselves. But all the CD-r salesmen have just been raided by Auvibel levy officials.
Surrealistic. We are in a fair hall with tens of thousands of empty CD's. We want to make copies of free software, but we can't, because every single booth that sells CD-r's has just been torn down by the levy police. Luckily, around 15.30, a stack of 100 CD-r's mysteriously falls from the sky into our booth.

* Leuven fair. A 76 years old man and his wife come by.
me: "Ever heard of Ubuntu, sir, madam?". You never know...
grandpa: "Sure. We use it."
me: "Oh, nice. And, any experience you would want to share?"
grandpa: "Well, I like it much better than Windows. I was a bit afraid of installing new software, but it all went really smoothly. I feel much more at ease with Ubuntu. And I like Gimp for editing photos."
This old couple made a few hearts melt...

* Antwerp, Leuven, Liège: the ever reoccurring surprised African theme. What happens when an African visitor suddenly sees a word in his native language, printed in letters half a meter high, at a computer fair, a word that gives him a warm feeling? Enthusiasm.
Determination. "I want that on my computer. Nothing else!"

[1] http://hackles.org/cgi-bin/archives.pl?request=342

Mark
ubuntu-be.org

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