Install Fest Notes

[Chuck Frain]

I just published this to my blog. It's my thoughts on the install fest 
we had last week.

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It was pointed out to me recently by Celeste that no one had done a 
write up on our recent install fest. The reason for that I think was the 
low turnout of those wanting to get Ubuntu installed on their systems. 
Kind of a downer.

It's always tough to spend time and energy getting an event like this 
together then have a small turnout. The time spent developing fliers. 
Taking those to shops and libraries in the area with gas prices being 
what they are and the time it take to ask for space to put them up. 
Finding sites to post the information on wondering if anyone will read 
and act on it. Then the day comes and you get up bright and early. Pack 
the car with the gear and make the trek in. An hour to set up and then 
over the next six hours you have three people show up.

For some it would lead to the question of 'Why bother?'

Then I get an email from one of the gentlemen who dropped in. It was 
simple and read:

     "Enjoyed the event. I had Ubuntu put onto a flash drive, and I can 
boot from it (given a computer new enough to boot from usb flash - I am 
learning alot about that). Thanks, and looking forward to the next event."


That got me thinking. We had three people come in to have Ubuntu 
installed on their systems. The first was a home user who had come 
across our website. He wanted to see what Linux could do for one of his 
old PCs. Then we had [The Other] Chuck from the local LUG. Recently he's 
become interested in giving back to the community through his knowledge 
of computers. He took time to collect up some older hardware and spend a 
few hours of his Saturday installing Ubuntu on them. He's going to take 
those five machines and either give them to a charity that can use them 
or sell them inexpensively and donate the profits to (I think it will 
be) Hackers for Charities. Then we have the gentleman who came in and 
had a flash drive Ubuntuized. Now he can try this wonderful system out 
and show it to friends easily.

I think at the end of the day all the volunteers can say we had a great 
time. We got to hang out and chat with friends. Discuss various 
technologies and geek out a bit. All of us with common interests. Marco 
Figueiredo dropped in with his daughter to discuss some of what our 
host, Loyola College Center for Community Informatics, was doing and 
researching. All great stuff to hear and start to conceptualize what can 
be done with free software to help people.

So even though we didn't do a whole lot of installing we did quite a 
bit. Two new Ubuntu users, one person who we've helped with a charity 
project, learned a little about what's being done with Free Software to 
help people around the world learn and enhance their lives and we had a 
good time together. I'm looking forward to seeing what we do next time!