[DC LoCo] [Fwd: Re: Ubuntu]

[Kevin Cole]

Don's follow-up message was rather informative as well, and so, without
further ado...

Adieu. ;-)

-------- Original Message --------
From: frdbrkl at verizon.net

Kevin,

Thanks for the prompt reply.  Per your instructions, I've submitted to
join dcteam on launchpad.

A few quick (and ironic) notes...

I'm an HVAC/R technician by trade (work on air conditioning and heat both
residential and commercial) and one of the accounts I handle is the  PG
County School Systems operations section in Upper Marlboro.  The head of IT
for Prince George's County is Marc Turner.   One of his main assistants is
Marty (last name unknown to me).  Last tuesday I was there performing
maintenance on their equipment, and bumped in to Marty (Marc was out of
office).  As I had recently did the 100% conversion to Ubuntu, it was a
topic of discussion with him.  I was able to get him to log onto the Ubuntu
website, and even note the Edubuntu project.  He's interested, and
commented that he would mention it to Marc.

In all reality, it probably won't occur, and without follow up, the issue
will probably die.  So.....I'm in the process of burning all 4
distributions (server and desktop for both platforms) as well as Edubuntu
to present to him in the future-possibly next month when I return again for
the monthly service.

Also....High Point high school is 5 minutes from my house (one of PG's
largest schools), so dropping a few copies off to them is in the near
future as well.  I'm trying to hit them from the top and bottom until they
"get it".

It is MOST fortuitous that this is an advocacy group, as that is *exactly*
what I am.  My command line skills reek to put it mildly, but I can stumble
through rather simple tasks such as installing Lightscribe.  My love for
and appreciation of Ubuntu, open source, and Edubuntu are much greater
though, and I'm spreading the joy where I can.

Unfortunately, I intend to change jobs in the next 6-8 weeks, and this
account will no longer be available to me so I'll have to work quick.  I
can burn 10 or 15 discs for him, but any bulk will have to be handled by
Ubuntu or Canonical-sorry, I'm not a wealthy man, and I refuse to hand out
discs with paper labels or my sloppy handwriting on them-thus the
Lightscribe solution.

If there is a source for more discs to offer him, let me know and I'll be
sure that they get to him.  Hell, I may even be able to get enough time
with him to do a demonstration with a live CD, but we'll have to see how my
(and his) schedules are.

I have in the last year given out over 50 Ubuntu discs and more to various
people, but not being in the field I don't have a lot of "administrator"
types in my circle of friends, and people are scared to death of leaving
the warm fuzzy prizon cells of Micro$oft and its point and click
disasters-but I'm trying like hell.  Wine helps a lot (!), and today I'm
going to put it to the H and R Block TaxCut software test. We'll see how
that turns out...

I'm more than willing to dedicate a day or two (evenings and weekends) here
and there to help spread the word, so if you have any LiveLoad functions or
the like, let me know!

Sorry this was so lengthy, but considering the function of the group, I
thought the personal info was of importance to you and the group.

Thanks for taking the time, and if you wish to contact me by phone, my
company cell (always on my hip) is 301-775-1746.

Don Posey

On Sat, Feb 28, 2009 at 11:16 AM, Kevin Cole wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Because you're not already listed as a member of the mailing list, the
> mailing list automatically discards the message.  Fortunately, it also
> sends me a message of the discards, and even more fortunate, I paid
> attention.  (It's so often spam, that I usually ignore the discard 
> messages.)
>
> Due to problems a while back, everyone decided to "raise the bar" a 
> bit for subscription -- not very high.  Sign up on http://launchpad.net/,
> and create a short profile of yourself.  Then join the "dcteam".  I get a
> message at that point saying you've applied.  I approve it and add you 
> to the mailing list.
>
> Meanwhile, I'll forward your message on.
>
> In any case, welcome.  ;-) We're more about advocacy than about tech
> support, figuring that the local Linux User Groups (LUGs) in this area
> already have the later covered.  Our next activity will be volunteering
> with some of the LUG'ers in the Tux.org booth at the FOSE Conference 
> coming up fast.  March 9-11?  Something like that.  I'll be there on 
> Wednesday...
>
> I'm running out the door shortly, otherwise I'd provide more details 
> on that.