[Ubuntu-be] ubuntu-be.org at computer fairs

[Sam]

What's the language of this list? Dutch, French or English?

2006/10/23, Mark Van den Borre <mvdborre at gmail.com>:
>
> 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 a 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...
>
> * Liège fair, 15.30. Many visitors are returning home already. I feel
> like doing something I haven't done for ages: play a game of Tuxracer.
> Seems it got renamed to Planet PenguinRacer since I last played it.
> One minute later, I have three kids and their father standing next to
> me. Guess I should leave the computer to the kids and explain their
> dad about Ubuntu.
>
> * Liège fair, half an hour before closing time. An old truck driver comes
> by.
> "I saw this Ubuntu demo and I just bought this laptop. It's my first
> computer. Could you help me install Ubuntu on it?"
> "We could try. Let's have a look"
> "Hm, why don't you do it yourself? Here's current and a CD."
> Half an hour later. Closing time. A man leaves with his freshly
> installed laptop. Proud of his unknown computer installation skills.
>
> * 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? Enthousiasm.
> Determination. "I want that on my computer. Nothing else!"
>
> If you ever see one of the following ubuntu-be.org people, buy them a
> drink. They deserve it for their work organising these fair booths.
> Their names, in no particular order: Luc Arits, Jeroen Wouter,
> François Cauwe, François Schoubben, Annelies Bollen, Christophe
> Vandeplas, Adriaan Leijnse, Benoit Plunus, Etienne Saliez, Cedric
> Janssens & nephew, Réginald Ratz, Mark Van den Borre, Toni Van
> Remortel, Yves Jans, Adrien Verlee and the anonymous missionaries I
> forgot.
>
> [1] http://hackles.org/cgi-bin/archives.pl?request=342
>
> Mark
> ubuntu-be.org
> --
> Mark Van den Borre
> Noormannenstraat 113
> 3000 Leuven, België
> +32 486 961726
>
> --
> ubuntu-be mailing list
> ubuntu-be at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-be
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-be/attachments/20061023/0a20c943/attachment.htm