Coming home to Helena.

[feisty_hot_lover]

I been away from my hometown of Helena, MT now for about 6 1/2 years. You know what that means, 2 hour drives to Missoula just to hit Best Buy. No not really cause I don't like Best buy all that much. But now that I'm moving back to be with my family, Helena just plain sucks as far as shopping for computer goodies, well except for that place called MD supply or maybe it's called MD5 supply. But I'm so excited to see some of the other changes that ma tells me about. But what the hell happened to the Gaslight theater! You mean the entire city has to crowd into the Great Northern now. I will be moving in late June and I start to look for a place at the end of May so I don't have to room with ma.

Well any way I was just blown away there was enough Montana users to have a Loco team. When I think about the spirit of Ubuntu and Montana at first glance they may not appear to mesh to well. You know the hard drinking, chewing, walk into a bar and everyone looks at ya or the guns on the rack in the pickup. Now I been a hard drinking man myself in the past especially at the Nightowl and that bar off I-90 towards Clancy called Silver something but I got too tell ya that ain't all there is to Montana. Theirs quite a bit of diversity nowadays, and now I got to thinking about it, we've have all ways had quite the diversity. I don't know that I could explain it to someone who's not from Big Sky but if you think about it Linux and Ubuntu go together with Montana like a fish takes to water. You take a dash of independent spirit, some defiance, a little weatherin and some strong medicine (your favorite local brewery's liquor) and ya got yourself Ubuntu.

Guess I'll have to poke in from time to time. Really don't like irc at all so won't show up there. So where's a good place in Montana to buy Computer stuff or to drop off Ubuntu cd's. I was thinkin you could dump a batch at the Project for alternative learning (my school), Capital or Helena High. What about other open source activism in Montana, like lobbying for an open document format or maybe saving government money by switching to Linux.

Anyways just saying howdy. Park Lake here I come.

P.S. You all know the Capital High Bruins and Carroll Saints top the other cities anytime right. :wink: :p

[Pikestaff]

Not a lot of options in Montana overall for buying computer stuff, unless you want to go to Best Buy or Staples or something. (I have to go to Staples cause they don't have a Best Buy in Bozeman yet, I think they're building one though :p ) So I do most of my computer-shopping online from newegg.com.

As for dropping off Ubuntu CDs, I agree that colleges and maybe high schools would be a good bet. MSU is really open-source friendly from what I can tell. They have Firefox as the default browser on most computers on campus and they also have Open Office installed on all of them. I imagine they'd be happy to help spread around some Ubuntu CDs.

And you mentioned a good idea with the government lobbying... we could send a letter to the state government or something telling them about Linux, that might be a good project.

[feisty_hot_lover]

Thank god for newegg. Yeah later this year when I get back I'm going to find the local rep for my city and county government and send them information about Linux and open doc. I'll have to read up on how to be effective on encouraging open source in government without being a fan boy, got to be realistic. I don't want make claims I can't support. I will start with OpenDoc first though as free and open access to our government information is most important. The local cities and counties are a great place to start. One of the things I will need to be careful with is the idea that open source saves money. Money is a complicated issue, especially in government.

[bodhi.zazen]

Welcome Home feisty_hot_lover !

I am in Helena as well. There is a Helena LUG and I teach a Linux course at the Adult Learning Center.

The Montana LoCo is just starting and we (I) could use a few enthusiastic folks on the team !

PM me your contact info once you hit the ground.

WARNING: bodhi is more of the skiing/tree hugging type then the drinking/chewing type :twisted:

[lunaz]

move to missoula guys... :(

[feisty_hot_lover]

move to missoula guys... :(

Too many people. Helena is starting to get too many people too. Traffic woes sum it up nicely for me. Still Missoula is nice too. Hey bodhi the skiing/tree hugging type, I like them too.

[JasonPN]

Howdy.

I am in Helena too. I am a mixed platform user (40% Linux; 40% Windows; 20% OS X) and I guess I had no idea there was a Linux class here. What Adult Learning Center are you talking about? With teh school district? (I am a teacher in Helena).

Jason :)

P.S. Missoula drives me nuts. :) I am the lefty, tree-huggin' hippy type, but still...

[bodhi.zazen]

Howdy.

I am in Helena too. I am a mixed platform user (40% Linux; 40% Windows; 20% OS X) and I guess I had no idea there was a Linux class here. What Adult Learning Center are you talking about? With teh school district? (I am a teacher in Helena).

Good, you can help me build an edubuntu cluster as my children come up through the school system :)


Jason :)

P.S. Missoula drives me nuts. :) I am the lefty, tree-huggin' hippy type, but still...

The Adult Education Center

Contact Jake Gustin (406) 324-2119

I offer an 8 week course. The adult ed center provides computers for the class room. Cost is reasonable, I donate the $ they pay me back to the Adult Ed Center (not much I know, but it helps them). Frequency of the course depends on demand.

As a part of the course I give out Ubuntu desktop edition, although if there are hardware problems, I will give an alternate distro and have been known to Sabayon (Beryl he he he ... , caries quite the pizzaz and flash I need to get their attention, can't wait for do that on the Ubuntu Live CD).

Content of 2/8 weeks is determined by user needs (we did servers and networking last session).

Hippies welcome :)

[feisty_hot_lover]

The Adult Education Center

Contact Jake Gustin (406) 324-2119


The Adult Education center is that on Front street or is that different from where you go to get a GED. My last 2 years of school were at P.A. L., Project for Alternative Learning. There are so many great schools in Helena. You have your pick of the lot.

[bodhi.zazen]

The Adult Education center is that on Front street or is that different from where you go to get a GED. My last 2 years of school were at P.A. L., Project for Alternative Learning. There are so many great schools in Helena. You have your pick of the lot.

That's it :)

That is why I donate back the the ALC, give back to the community :)

[JasonPN]

What computers are you using at Front Street? I teach a number of technology workshops for teachers in the district. I now teach exclusively at the Capital HS library but I used to use Front Street. Is it still all Macs or do they have some PCs now?

[bodhi.zazen]

What computers are you using at Front Street? I teach a number of technology workshops for teachers in the district. I now teach exclusively at the Capital HS library but I used to use Front Street. Is it still all Macs or do they have some PCs now?

Wow, it is fantastic to see all this local interest. It would be great to expand and offer some instruction at the high school level.

They (The Adult Learning Center) have a suite of PC's now. They are actually fairly decent boxes and by mutual agreement we disconnect the HD before booting our live Linux CD's (mutual security).

They have one box set up with a projector so I can literally walk students through more complex steps.

All in all I was quite pleased with the facility and would like to see the program grow.

[CDL-WarChilde]

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but I just tonight discovered this section of the Ubuntu forums.

Are people still in Helena still needing help? I'm a new Ubuntu user. I have a passing familiarity with linux, nothing on an expert level but manage to finagle my way around the OS.

I have to say that I've been pleasantly surprised with how far Linux has come. I'm currently dual booting right now.

[bodhi.zazen]

Welcome :)

Well, I am in Helena and am planning to run an adult education Linux (Ubuntu) course at the adult education center in Helena this fall.

If I can be of any assistance, drop me a line ;)

[lunaz]

u guys all need to move to missoula!

i looked at the adult ed catalog we had @ work & there was no linux stuff at all.. :(

[bodhi.zazen]

I am not sure my course is listed in the catalog ...

[Worzie]

bodhi.zazen, I want to suggest to you to either start up a new HelenaLUG or talk with Ken to see if your Helena Linux users here who have piped up in this thread could rouse him into having more regular meetings. (Bad grammar I know.)

Ken means well, but needs to be more vocal in the community online to advertise the existence of the HelenaLUG. BTW, for those who don't know, it is at http://www.helenalug.org

Anyway I hope you all would consider this. Go Bodhi go!

--
Warren

[CDL-WarChilde]

I saw the Helena LUG but there haven't been any meetings since I've around. Granted, I've only been at this for a couple of months. :confused:

[bodhi.zazen]

OK, a quick update :

First I missed the dead line for my linux course this fall :redface:

Plan to run the course in the winter semester ...

Second, I would love to kick start the Helena LUG ... Anyone else interested ?

[CDL-WarChilde]

Yes.

[mwacky]

Only a matter of Time before Helena builds a big box electronics/computer store besides Staples, I wouldn't get caught up in the Missoula is better than Helena is better than Bozeman debate, they all are better than living in any other state out there!