Introductory Posting

[simon.a.ruiz]

Greetings, all,

I guess the honors fall to me to christen this fine new ship!

Let us pretend that I can afford an incredibly rare and expensive bottle of champagne, then let us pretend that I have just smashed it against the bow of our ship.

I christen thee "Indiana LoCo Team"!

Alright. Cheers! If you choose, you can pretend that there is your drink of choice available with which to celebrate.

Perhaps someday soon we may celebrate with less pretending and more face-to-face.

It is my hope that this marks the beginning of a grand journey. It is my belief that Ubuntu is destined to lead the pack in fixing Bug #1. (For those who don't catch the reference, you can check out the official bug report at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1 which is the first bug reported in the Launchpad system by Mark Shuttleworth in August 2004.) Of course this won't happen on it's own, it's the sort of thing that will take lots of people lots of work to accomplish, but I believe a world dominated by Free and Open Source Software is worth the work.

I was rather excited when the US Teams project (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/USTeams) announced that they'd made it their goal to have an approved LoCo team in every US State by 2008. I sat back and waited for someone to create an IndianaTeam, and I waited...and waited...I then came to the conclusion that if it was so important to me that an IndianaTeam exist, and noone else was doing it, that I might as well get off my lazy (and busy) backside and make it happen.

My plan looks a little something like this:

Step 1: Get people to join the new LoCo Team
Step 2: ...
Step 3: World Domination!

Well, then, to be completely honest, I am not sure what Step 2 is; I was hoping you all might be able to help with that. :-)

I'd like to know what you would like to accomplish with the Local Community Team. Since we're brand new, we don't have a previously existing structure to restrict what we want to do...on the the other hand we also don't have a previously existing structure to guide what it is we should be doing. For these reasons, it's important that we get your input. What direction do we want to take?

The usual LoCo Team activities are things like "Promote, Advocate for, and Support Ubuntu", which is fine and dandy...and vague.

We've got Support pretty much covered. There's already plenty of great people here who can handle supporting newcomers. We're plugged into the web in such a way that people new to Ubuntu looking for help in the Indiana area have a pretty good chance of finding us either on the mailing list, the forum, or on IRC. We just have to wait for them. I suppose one thing we could think about, regarding Support, is: how do we make it easier for people in Indiana who need us to find us?

We've already done a little bit in the way of Promoting/Advocacy simply by existing. I was contacted in order to find a speaker for IPFW (Indiana University Purdue University of Fort Wayne) because I'd announced my intention to start this Team, even before we got our mailing list up and running, and was able to pass that along to people who could handle it (Hi Vern!). So some promotion/advocacy opportunities will just sort of find their way to us by virtue of our existance. Some will come to us because we'll all have our eyes open for these opportunities. Some we may even create ourselves.

The mere fact that we exist will bring opportunities to us, heck people on ubuntuforums came to our forum and were posting before I even had a chance to check it for the first time, much less advertise it. But what can we do to sort of facilitate these opportunities coming to us? What can do to create some of these opportunities?

When we become an Official, Approved, Team--and I have no doubt that we will--we'll get the opportunity to receive and distribute those spiffy CDs of every release (After the release of Dapper Drake, it was decided that only the LTS releases would be available to the general public, that if people wanted free CDs of the latest not LTS version, distribution of those would be handled by Approved LoCo Teams), and we'll be able to get marketing materials shipped to us from Canonical (when I spoke on behalf of Canonical at CINLUG, they sent me CDs, stickers, brochures, and even some T-shirts to give away).

Of course, we sort of have to act as a team for a while so that we can show that we can work well together in the spirit of Ubuntu (check out the Code of Conduct at http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct , or "Experience ubuntu.ogg" in your ~/Examples directory in Ubuntu if you have questions about "the spirit of Ubuntu") before we get "Approved".

It's been suggested that we meet regularly, which I'd like to get your ideas on. I realize it may not be feasible to meet face-to-face on a regular basis, but I think it'd be kind of cool to do so from time to time. It may be more feasible to meet online on IRC at specified times, what do you all think? I know a lot of people don't use IRC much.

At the moment we've got people from Bloomington, Martinsville, Indianapolis, and Fort Wayne involved (at least on the Mailing List), maybe more, so for any real life meetings, it'd probably be best to figure out a location in Indianapolis or thereabouts to be as convenient to everyone as possible.

Anyhow, this premier post is meant mostly to stir up conversation, and get this Team started up.

It's a pleasure to have you all participating in whatever form you desire to do so, I greatly appreciate it.

By no means a pre-requisite for participation, I encourage people to add themselves to the members list on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IndianaTeam and/or to the launchpad team (if you have or desire to get a launchpad account--useful, I've found, for requesting CDs, posting Bugs, doing translation work, etc. in Ubuntu) at https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-us-indiana because the longer those lists gets, the warmer and fuzzier the feeling I get from looking at it becomes. :-)

Anyhow, I'm going to stop here. Again, thank you for your participation. Now, DISCUSS!

I hope this finds you all having a beautiful day!

Simón

[Elim]

I like the idea of an IRC meeting. I don't use IRC too often, but I'd log on if we had a meeting time set up. After a few months, if anyone's interested, a face-to-face meet would be cool. We'll have to look at that down the road.

I think we should also consider an event/events for promoting Ubuntu/Linux. I go to a university with 36,000 students (IU Bloomington), and only a handful of the CS students use Linux. So many people just know about Mac and Windows and that's all they ever consider. I don't know how it would be done, or if it's already been tried, but lately I've been thinking about trying to increase awareness of Free/Open Source in my community (my college campus). If anyone has any ideas how to do that (either at IU or at other towns and cities in Indiana), I'd love to hear your opinion.

[gobygoby]

Just wanted to say whats up! Never used any type of Linux until the other day. I saw a vid about Beryl and had to have it. So I reformated my lappy to dual boot win xp and Ubuntu (edgy eft). I also got Beryl installed and its sweet! Had some issues with Kiba-dock, but I think its due to the svc reps being down or what not. Other then that, I dont know amuch about linux. I have been reading a lot about it, and hope to learn more!

Oh ya, about me. I am a web designer. Took a C programming class in school, and hated it......uggh.......looks like I need to like it now!

Word to yo momma!
Kyle

[simon.a.ruiz]

I like the idea of an IRC meeting. I don't use IRC too often, but I'd log on if we had a meeting time set up. After a few months, if anyone's interested, a face-to-face meet would be cool. We'll have to look at that down the road.

I think we should also consider an event/events for promoting Ubuntu/Linux. I go to a university with 36,000 students (IU Bloomington), and only a handful of the CS students use Linux. So many people just know about Mac and Windows and that's all they ever consider. I don't know how it would be done, or if it's already been tried, but lately I've been thinking about trying to increase awareness of Free/Open Source in my community (my college campus). If anyone has any ideas how to do that (either at IU or at other towns and cities in Indiana), I'd love to hear your opinion.

RE: IRC & IRL meetings. Right on. I could see waiting a while before doing a face-to-face. I'm often idling in the IRC channel myself, so an IRC meeting would just be a matter of making sure to be there at a certain time.

RE: Awareness at IU. You should think about getting in touch with the Bloomington Linux Users' Group <http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org>, they're a great bunch of people. Our next meeting is tomorrow evening if that's not too short notice. There's quite a few people from the BLUG on the IndianaTeam, so you might want to chat us up with your ideas.


Just wanted to say whats up! Never used any type of Linux until the other day. I saw a vid about Beryl and had to have it. So I reformated my lappy to dual boot win xp and Ubuntu (edgy eft). I also got Beryl installed and its sweet! Had some issues with Kiba-dock, but I think its due to the svc reps being down or what not. Other then that, I dont know amuch about linux. I have been reading a lot about it, and hope to learn more!

Oh ya, about me. I am a web designer. Took a C programming class in school, and hated it......uggh.......looks like I need to like it now!

Word to yo momma!
Kyle

Hello Kyle!

If you can get Beryl installed and played with on your first day of Linux, you're leaps and bounds ahead of where I was when I started! I'm certain we've got plenty to learn from one another. It's good to have you on board!

BTW, You only NEED to like C programming if you plan to do any of it. I, for instance, have never touched the stuff--though I'd like to learn--and it hasn't really kept me from having a great experience with Linux, or from contributing back to the community.

Take care, and I'll see you around!

Simón

[visualdeception]

Great to see a LoCo in Indiana!! Is there a Muncie LUG? Does any one know. I would like to get more involved in the community.

[simon.a.ruiz]

Hello visualdeception!

Welcome to the party!

I'm not sure about a LUG in Muncie, but if I were you I'd poke around Ball State, especially the Computer Science school.

[visualdeception]

Yea, I need to check that. I guess I could always go with CINLUG, and this....

[kaens]

Yea, I need to check that. I guess I could always go with CINLUG, and this....

I'm not aware of a Muncie LUG, I do know exactly two linux users in Muncie though. That's including myself. Maybe we should start a LUG.

[visualdeception]

we should with all the college kids surely there are some linux enthusiasts

[misconfiguration]

I just wanted to post and say hello and I'd like to be an active member as well. My Name is Nate, I'm from the Indianapolis area.

About me: I'm 22 years old I'm currently a Systems Engineer and Head Linux Administrator for St. Francis hospitals. I work at the data centre next to the Beech Grove hospital campus. We provide support for all St. Francis hospitals. I support an environment that consists of AIX/HP-UX and Red hat Enterprise environments along with two other *NIX admins.

I started using Linux in 2000 with the introduction of Slackware Linux by a long-time internet gaming friend. I've always had a passion for computers and Linux had overwhelming possibilities. I had ADHD as a child so it was hard for me to focus in school; albeit it has always been very easy to focus on something I enjoy.

I run Ubuntu on my gaming rig at home, I'm a 100% *NIX shop at home; I have ridden the use for Microsoft as a whole, it's limiting my gaming experience with newer releases but I have faith in the community, we will prevail.

I started using Ubuntu with the Dapper-Drake release since, I've been an avid Fan. I'm also a big Fan of Slackware, FreeBSD, Gentoo, Fedora, Red Hat and obviously Ubuntu. One thing that Ubuntu has that the rest doesn't seem to be able to provide is the huge fan base and the uncanny passion to help others, I'm very satisfied with the distribution as I would love to be a part of this project.

That's just a little about my technical background, I'm a very social person in my down-time; I like to enjoy things like a normal 22 yr old, party, hang with friends and meet new people!

[simon.a.ruiz]

Welcome aboard, misconfiguration!

[chronusdark]

im a lil late to the show (i didn't even know there was an indiana LoCo) but im ready and eager to join up.. i love linux and esp. ubuntu.

as soon as im done typing this up im gonna get in the IRC channel

i look forward to meeting everyone

[simon.a.ruiz]

You can't be late to the show that never ends ;-) glad to have you with us!

[amazingtaters]

howdy IN LOCO. I'm not a full time Indiana resident, but hey, I spend the whole school year here.

[simon.a.ruiz]

amazingtaters: Welcome aboard!

[bshaw]

Greetings!

My name is Brian, I live in the Indianapolis area.

I first started dabbling in Linux back in the late 90's - probably somewhere in the 98-99 range when I was still in High School. Back then I would dual boot Win98 and whatever the current version of Red Hat was at the time. I never really made an official switch due to the fact that I could never get my darn Zip Drive to work under Linux... ahhh the good days!

When I was in college I mainly used Slackware. I also managed a few web servers that ran a version of Sun's Linux - it was not Solaris, it was basically just a watered down version of Red Hat.

For the past few years I have been using Debian on a small Web / storage server at home and have just recently switched my PCs over to run Ubuntu exclusively. ...I also own a Mac.

At work I use Ubuntu Server for my monitoring machines and I am in the process of building up a virtualized development environment using Ubuntu.

I hope to see some activity on this forum - it really is a good way to reach out and be a part of the local Linux community.

[simon.a.ruiz]

bshaw: Cool, that's quite a history you got there. :-)

There's periodic activity on the forum.

Our mailing list is pretty active, too.

Welcome aboard!

[Hehaub]

Salutations,

I am in the Frankfort area, about 50miles north of Indy. I have used linux/UNIX for around 15years. Redhat, Slackware, Solaris, BSDi, FreeBSD, and Ubuntu are some I have used over the years. I look forward to finding people in my area that are also interested in Linux.

I am also looking forward to Indiana Linuxfest!

- Hehaub

[simon.a.ruiz]

@Hehaub:

Hey, awesome, good to have you! Welcome aboard!

I myself am originally from Bloomington, now in Fort Wayne.

We've got people from all over! :-D

[zot171]

Hey from the south side of Indy!

I started using Linux about 8 months ago. I was reading Linux books and trying to install PC Linux '07 on an old computer and got hooked. I couldn't get the GUI to work and we didn't have the internet at the time, so I spent quite a lot of time using text commands and midnight commander. I got comfortable in those environments, but I'm not sure I learned much.

After that, I installed pendrivelinux on my flashdrive to use at school. It is still there now.

Then, after our windows machine (this one) stopped functioning, I found and ordered two Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon live cds and a Kubuntu Hardy Heron live cd. I kept one and gave the other to a friend. I ended up reinstalling windows because mom is slow to accept change, but she's coming around...

I want to learn more about Ubuntu's intricacies and help spread the power.

thx

[simon.a.ruiz]

zot171, Welcome Aboard!

Also, working on the command line is definitely a learning experience! You have to develop a much better understand of what's going on if you're typing than if you're mousing.

[Midwest-Linux]

I don't live in Indiana, but live close to Indiana, Ohio and in Kentucky. Is there a tri-state group or a Cincinnati Ubuntu Group?
Thanks.

[simon.a.ruiz]

Midwest-Linux,

I don't really know, myself. I would guess that the Ohio LoCo would be the place to ask about people in Cincinnati.

[Midwest-Linux]

Midwest-Linux,

I don't really know, myself. I would guess that the Ohio LoCo would be the place to ask about people in Cincinnati.

Thanks

[TravisG79]

Hi all!

I'm Travis, and I live in Terre Haute. It seems like we've got this state pretty well covered!

I always wanted to play with Linux when I was in HS/college, but never really got it to work right. I worked at the computer help desk at college, so I was always around Red Hat/Linux and the like.

I finally took the plunge a few months ago and set up Ubuntu on my main desktop. It dual boots with XP pro. It's a homebrew box I built something like 6 or 7 years ago.

I'm amazed at how little I boot into Windows now! I'm still learning lots about Ubuntu, but I'm really happy with it! I believe I've gotten a few friends ready to take the plunge too!

I'm not on the chat stuff too often (AIM, Y!, IRC) but I loves me the discussion boards! :)


Travis

[simon.a.ruiz]

@Travis,

Yeah, I had a dual-boot somewhere to run a couple of games I'd bought recently. It wasn't too long before I found that I wasn't booting into it much at all anymore, myself.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you!

I hope you continue to have fun and enjoy Ubuntu.

[bjmc]

Hey everyone,

My name is Brent and I am from Evansville. I have been using Ubuntu-server for a few years, and I have started to Advocate Ubuntu to home users and family members within the last few months. I was always a debian guy, and after a few problems with long release delays I dabbled with Gentoo and then found Ubuntu in its early beginnings. I have used Ubuntu-server for about everything you can think of, but I do have several servers using FreeBSD for firewall and Multi-WAN purposes. I have made several packages not in the repo's for myself, but I wouldn't call myself anything close to a programmer. :P I don't normally participate in public groups, but I love Ubuntu and would like to show some support and offer whatever I can.

[hypert]

Hi i have got the latest version of ubuntu and i only got one problem and thats the sound. It don't whant to go loud. please help

[simon.a.ruiz]

@bjmc: Cool! Well, welcome aboard! We're glad to have you. I'm usually on the mailing lists myself, though I try to take a stroll through the forums from time to time.

@hypert: Maybe if you could describe what your problem is with sound, we might be able to help. You should probably start a new thread, though, so its more visible and obvious that you're looking for help.

[chriswashere]

I know what step number two shall be. It shall be building a better conversion utility so that more microsoft users will be inclined to switch.

[deer dance]

Greetings!

I am Austin, from Rolling Prairie! Not far from South Bend.

I'm fairly young, just 15, but an avid fan of Ubuntu. I'm currently running 9.04.

I look forward to being part of the community.

[rbishop]

Hello all,

My name is Rob. I am from the Indy area. I have been playing around with Ubuntu since 2006. I am currently running 9,04 on my main machine and a couple of servers I am building / using.

Glad to see a local community of Ubuntu users.

[Captain Spaulding]

HI

I am from Garrett, Indiana and just north of Fort Wayne. I am running 9.04 and looking forward to learning ubuntu.

[emarkay]

Old timer, currently Beta Testing Karmic. Just a short post here to say hi; will intro on the main board.

[ConXtionS]

Hi.... Im Jim and I am a TOTAL LINUX NOOB.....

Im on my third week using linux..... I would love to say that its been fun, but to be honest it is very frustrating so far and there have been many times I have looked over at my beloved windows copies...

However, I am getting older and I do love computers so I am trying.

I live in a small town called Williamsport Indiana... We are about 40 mins from Lafayette, and hour plus to the west side of Indy, and 2 hours from chicago, or pretty much smack dab in the middle all the way to the west side of Indiana.

Unlike many of the folks using Linux, I am not doing so out of some kind of windows hate.... I simply want to learn....

My progects for this winter are to build the MYTH TV system and then put it out at my camp ground this summer so I can have some dang TV! I also want to make a Server to house all of my precious tv shows and divy them out to the people I like. The camp ground is threatening to get high speed internet so I might also want to make a hot spot with a walled garden so I can control lil Johnny.

I was in the US Army and then an electrician and then I owned a small Wireless Internet Service for a few years.

I am bearing down on 50, disabled, kids are grown, wife has at least three boy friends, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 1 brother.....

Anyhow, I am hoping to make some linux buddies...

I hope that is enough of an intro???

Be well guys

Jim

[LordDelta]

Greetings~

I happen to be an Indiana resident.

I program. You name it. (ok, well, I haven't done much Assembly programming...yet)

I also use Ubuntu Linux...though I've got my eye on Fedora/Knoppix/Slackware/OpenBSD...which I may or may not one day install.

I grew up on Windows (95,98,2000,XP), never really liked it, customized my first Windows machine to hell, then got annoyed with viruses the second time it got infected. That, and hated the inevitable performance bloat that comes with using any of those machines too long.

For most of my high-school career, I was in love with Mac OSX. I'd still use XP when I had to, but I infinitely preferred OSX, especially the little thing called Terminal that could do so many neat tricks, in comparison to the arcane "Command Prompt" in Windows. I actually ran my first triple boot on a MAC, with Ubuntu.

Since then, I've lost access to that machine, and have only been using XP/Windows 7/Ubuntu. XP is ok inside a virtual machine when I have a discerning executable to run, I like bits and pieces of Windows 7, but I do most of my work on Ubuntu these days.

I'm no longer a senseless Mac fan, but I still infinitely prefer *nix machines. I'm hoping to learn Ubuntu's system enough to start helping out...though I have a deal of customization left to do, and I don't intend to be a loyal Ubuntu fan.

I do plan, however, on being a devotee to the *nix effort, through Ubuntu.

I am a reverse bird - during the spring and winter months, I am located in the northern extremities, nearby Angola. During the summer months, I am likely located in central Indiana, namely Indianapolis.

So, for now, hello, I would like to be an active member.

...Also, I would like to clarify something:


Unlike many of the folks using Linux, I am not doing so out of some kind of windows hate.... I simply want to learn....

Unlike the gentleman above me states, I don't think everyone, or even most, people using Linux hate Windows. This is certainly not my stance, I think a better way to put it is "prefer". In my case, that has been clarified with "infinitely", but its the same sort of preference I someone might have for chocolate ice-cream instead of...say strawberry.

Just trying to break the ignoramus stereotype of people who use Linux as Windows hating Zealots. I think most of the time people just can't resist it once they get into it, even if there is perhaps more of a learning barrier than Windows has.

[ghostcatzero]

Hello, I'm Travis from Richmond, IN. I started using Ubuntu in 2006 and never looked back. Does much happen for Indiana Ubuntu folks? BTW, I'm launching a Richmond Linux User Group. There's a new thread for it, so check it out if you're near Richmond, or visit https://sites.google.com/site/richmondlinux/

[jcarwile99]

Hello,

My name is John and I'm from the Greenwood area, just south of Indianapolis. I have had an aversion to Windows for years, and am finally making an effort to switch my home PCs to Linux, specifically Ubuntu. So far, I have been making pretty good progress, with only a couple things preventing me from completely removing the Widows partition of my dual-boot main home computer.

I have taken a rather unusual path to linux, as my job for the past 20 years or so has been as a Systems Programmer working on OS390 - z/OS on IBM mainframes. A couple years ago, my company purchased z/VM and as a result we brought up several guest SLES 10 guest servers running under it. As one of the main administrators of these Linux guests, I have a pretty good working knowledge of Linux in general from a server perspective. I also have some experience working on Solaris and AIX servers. Working on the highly proprietary Zseries, Pseries, and Sun hardware is, however, naturally quite a bit different than doing stuff in the workstation environment.

Well, that's pretty much where I come from. I hope to be an active participant in this group and would also like to eventually be able to provide some useful assistance of my own on occasion. Thanks.

John

[joegonnago]

Just thought I'd introduce myself a little bit:

I Live in S. IN. I work in telecom but am still very inexperienced. I'm pretty new to Ubuntu I used it a little bit in the past. I don't remember which version it might have been Karmic Koala. I've been really considering switching completely to Ubuntu for a while now(I'm just tired of windows). I'm probably going to start with a dual boot until I feel comfortable enough completely scratching windows. Just to make sure I can figure out how to get things working smoothly. I'm looking forward to the new experience.

[Scott_Elder]

Hi all, I am Scott From Anderson/Noblesville. I have just started using Ubuntu but have been using computers since my Commodore64 days. I am trying to get a Ubuntu server up and going as a virtual machine host for my businesses Small Business Server 2k11 installation. We have had problems in the past with hardware migration to new equipment, and I was thinking that by virtualizing, it would take some of that dependency out.

Scott

[tim19]

Hello, I thought I'd take a moment to introduce myself. I live in Huntington, Indiana, but I moved around a bit before settling here.

Computers have been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember and have fond memories of learning to program as a child.

I was first introduced to Linux 13 years ago when I came across Corel Linux. I quickly moved away from Corel and started experimenting with RedHat. I started playing around with Ubuntu 8 years ago and around 5 years ago, it became my OS of choice.

I hope to meet others who share my interests and just be a part of the community.

-Tim