PDA

View Full Version : Introductions and Meetups...



scastle
February 4th, 2008, 11:40 PM
Howdy Everyone.

I'm not sure how many of you look at the forums, but I'd reckon that not all of you have access to IRC.

I'm making this post to put a spark under the group to get things going again. I started the talks in the fall (well, August 07) but people faded away. Hopefully we can get people back and active, get a site up, get approved as an Official State LoCo team and have some meetings, Teaching Sessions, Library Appearances, etc.

I think we should get to know each other, and I think here is a pretty good place to do it.

I like the following to start:
Our initial goal is to get a core group of interested people together so we can start building the resources the community will need. As of now, we are simply emailing each other and using the IRC channels. Please feel free to contact us and, again, add your information to the members page!

So I'll introduce myself first.

Name: You already my name
Age: 21 (You can add it if you like)
Why Ubuntu: I've tried many different Distro, and I liked the GNOME setup. Ubuntu was just starting to catch on, and I figured if Linux was going to get big, I'd love to be a part of it and go along for the ride.

I'm a fan of open and free software. I believe that there is a place and a time for proprietary software (I understand that it is something some people will not agree with me on), but the operating system is not it.

Since I'm a student at the University of New Hampshire (yeah in-state tuition... ;)), I have a desktop here running Ubuntu 7.04 full time, a desktop at home Dual-Booting Ubuntu 7.10 and Windows XP Media Center and A Backup machine that I call a server running Xubuntu 7.10.

Well, I know that sometimes I go on too much, and I think that this is one of them. I posed a "Get to know one another" in IRC the other day, I am 'xsc' in there, and only got a response from Nikkiana (?).

Look forward to hearing from you other Ubuntytes soon.

-Steve

drdabbles
February 5th, 2008, 02:14 AM
Well, let me be the first to reply...

I'm Tom Cameron, from Manchester. I started using Ubuntu as my desktop and server linux of choice since around Dapper Drake was released. My history with Linux began around 1995 with Redhat Linux, which I quickly outgrew. Since then, I have tried several distributions from SuSE, Mandrake, Fedora, Debian, Gentoo, Slackware, CentOS, and so on. I try to know a little about each of them, so I can be as effective as possible when helping others.

My full experience with Linux on a technical side comes from a project I worked on for myself. I called it flashpoint firewall, and sold units to companies needing a multi-interface firewall device capable of VPN links between sites. For that project, I collected a host of kernel and application patches, wrote my own init scripts from the ground up, utilized Busybox heavily, and compiled everything against uClibc to minimize the device's footprint. I'd like to restart that project some day, but for now I find myself too busy.

Currently, I run Ubuntu on two laptops at home, two PCs at home (one acts as a server, the other as a media center), my desktop at work, as well as three other servers at work. I run the default Gnome window manager on them all (except the servers, obviously), but I have been a hard-core KDE advocate in the past. I find Gnome to have a very simple UI design, which keeps it from distracting me or getting in my way.

My aspiration for now is to help out with the MOTU group doing some packaging. I feel I need to contribute as much as possible to the Ubuntu community, simply because of what Ubuntu has meant to me. I have not owned a Windows license for any PC I own or use on a daily basis in over three years, and Ubuntu has been the best part of that.

scastle
February 5th, 2008, 02:24 AM
Tom,
That's awesome. Great way to kick off this thread. Lots of knowledge we can all learn from. I'm interested in packaging (possibly not at the level you are ;)), but at least learning how to make a .deb, etc.

Looking forward to the other responses.

-Steve

Matt 6:27
February 7th, 2008, 04:33 AM
Chris here, in Rye (a stone's throw from Steve). I've a different history from you guys. Started computing by watching my dad build an Altair 8800 back in about '75; it ran CPM and used a teletype for data input and a 300baud audio coupled modem to dial into Berkley. My dad taught me Basic and HEX so I could use the programming panel on the Altair.

Over the years, I pursued a different career path, but have always stayed on the periphery of computers. I started looking at linux several years ago; first Red Hat 5.0, then 5.2... then Corel Linux (a copy of which I still have on my shelf), but was always too chicken to load it on my one and only machine.

When MS announced it would discontinue support for 98SE, I threw caution to the wind and dual-booted Dapper and have never really looked back. I continued to dual-boot for about a year, but this past summer I re-lived my experience in 1975 and built a new system with my young daughter & son. I'm now 100% linux on my new desktop (Gutsy)... though I have to admit my wife is using XP on her laptop.

I don't write code, but do give out a fair number of Ubuntu CDs to co-workers, friends and family.

scastle
February 7th, 2008, 07:33 PM
Chris, thanks for the response. Nice to know someone else on the Seacoast is using Ubuntu. Do you know anyone else within the Seacoast area using Ubuntu? It'd be interesting to know the ratio of CD's given out vs. converted users.

Please consider adding yourself to the New Hampshire Team Members Page here (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NewHampshireTeam/Members). I'm trying to get people together so we can maybe have a meet-up or even host an event. I'd like to get something going on the Seacoast, but right now it seems that the two of us are the only two Seacoast members of the group.

Looking forward to hearing more from everyone else. Again, if anyone else knows other New Hampshire Ubuntu users, point them to this thread and have them post their information on the NH LoCo Page (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NewHampshireTeam/Members).

All the best.

-Steve

nikkiana
February 8th, 2008, 03:37 AM
Hi there, I'm Nikkiana (or Nikki). I live in Manchester. My first introduction to Linux and Ubuntu was in in May 2005 when my husband (then boyfriend) decided that he'd had enough of WIndows.... and his roommate using his computer. He installed to Kubuntu 5.04. The downfall was this transition came at a time when Firefox had some security issues and you couldn't download extentions unless your version number was correct, and while Firefox in the package manager had been patched, the version number hadn't been changed thus the validation on Firefox's page wasn't working.... and my husband had a meltdown over it because the package manager was such a foriegn concept to us at that point.

From there, he did some distro hopping.... I wasn't terribly involved with it, but I know he eventually settled on Gentoo for awhile. Gentoo successfully taught him what the value of a package manager was... He used Gentoo until Ubuntu 6.06 came out and the switched back to Ubuntu, and he's been with it ever since.

I went to school at NHTI and studied Computer Engineering Technology, so until school ended in 2006, I was bound to Windows for school reasons. (They've got a good program and teach foundations you can bring to any language.... but the program *is* horribly Windows centric). When I finished school in May 2006, I switched to Kubuntu 6.06.

Currently, I'm running Ubuntu 7.10 on my desktop, and I have a Mac laptop (seemed like the lesser evil).

Work wise, I'm a web developer specializing in theming for Drupal based websites.

Matt 6:27
February 8th, 2008, 02:53 PM
Well, I know a guy in Newmarket who dual-boots Fedora and Ubuntu. He's an old school computer guy (I think he worked on the designs for the old VAX-11) and is much more technically savvy than I. He's the one who finally convinced me to go for it after all my hmmmin' & hawwwin'. Other than you, he's the only person I know in the Seacoast area who definitely uses Ubuntu (or any linux distro for that matter).

As noted before, I've given out lots of CDs, mostly to family & friends. My dad (in Essex MA) has been the most receptive family member, though I think I've got a sister about to make the switch. In turn, my dad has handed out disks to his techy friends in the Cape Ann area. I've also converted a couple co-workers who have complained about their windows systems at home... once they opened the door, I walked right in and had instant converts. Most of the other folks I've reached out to seem to have played around with the Live CD, but have be reticent to go farther than that.

Beyond friends, family & co-workers, every once in awhile I strike up conversations with people at places like Best Buy. One thing leads to another and they start to complain about this or that re Windows. These conversations have led to my giving them a disk. I've never heard back from those folks, so I can't tell you how many have taken the plunge.

So of the 20-30 disks I've burned and handed out, I can really only confirm three users at this time. A 10% +/- success rate isn't so bad given that people generally don't like change in their lives.

scastle
February 8th, 2008, 08:33 PM
10%.... not too bad. That actually seems more than reasonable to me. Think about Firefox and the time that it took for its adoption, and its past and current market share. I'd personally like to see Ubuntu be as successful as Firefox, but (not to be pessimistic, but a realist) we won't see Linux in the mainstream for a long time.

Ubuntu is doing a great job to introduce people to Linux in a user-friendly way, but the adoption of Firefox didn't involve people having to change a major part of theie computer -- their operating system. Although we know that we can dual-boot, the common computer user only needs their machine to do the basic things... that of which Windows does well (all Ubuntu does just as well). Since there is no need for them to switch, they won't.

It is a personal goal of mine to get Ubuntu (or Edubuntu) into the local school system. This will introduce students to a whole new (and very powerful) computing world. Not all of the users who use the new Linux systems int the school will like it or ever use it again in the future, but I believe that it about getting them to know about it and realize that it is a viable alternative.

Maybe that was a little bit of a rant. ;)

Anyways, I am on a Windows-based machine at work... Oh the irony....

What goals do you guys want to accomplish as a group.

I know personally I really want to be able to teach web programming (PHP/Javascript, etc) through Ubuntu by offering local courses for free at the local library. Any other ideas would be great and we can pool our knowledge and resources to teach others computing through Ubuntu.

:)

-Steve

magicrobotmonkey
February 10th, 2008, 11:35 PM
Hey, everyone,
I'm Aaron, just moved back to Laconia in Nov. I grew up here then spent a few years away at school and then living in Cambridge, MA, but the lakes called me back.

I've been all Linux all the time for about 3 years, and used it for servers and just playing for 3 or 4 years before that. I work for a small web-software company in Boston (I commute down there 6 times a month). My job is great because we run all linux servers, and have control over our lappies, so I run 7.10 on my dell inspiron for work, also on a mac mini with a big 24" monitor in the living room at home for all my entertainment needs and i have a old box running 6.10 with mythtv waiting for baseball season to start.

At work, I'm mostly a developer, but I do some sysadmin/dba tasks as well (its a small company, so we all wear lots of hat). We currently run rhel on intel but are working on moving to ubuntu on sparc. (For a good time, go to ##java and ask about running java on linux on sparc.) My work is mostly PHP, but I do some stuff on the side. My open source claim to fame is the original version of the Now Playing screenlet (which the community took over and vastly improved).

I've got a (much too infrequently updated) blog at http://magicrobotmonkey.blogspot.com/ .

I'm excited to see if we can get something going. Also, I talked to someone here in August or so who has a farm and I want to buy some chicken and eggs.

scastle
February 14th, 2008, 02:21 AM
Sounds awesome. When and where do people want to get together?

I suppose that if people have access to IRC, we can have a live meeting in there at the time that most of the members of this group can make it to, and we can discuss relevant (or even some topics that aren't relevant ;)).

I guess we can just post here when people want the first IRC meeting to be and we can go from there.

Look forward to it... :)

-Steve

employeeno5
March 12th, 2008, 09:58 PM
Hi there. I just signed up on the mailing list on the wiki.

My name is Broderick. I'm 25. I grew in Manchester, and went to school in New York for performance art and philosophy. I traveled for a couple years and now I've settled back in Manchester with my girlfriend Melanie.

I'm not a computer guy by education or profession; I always focused on the fine arts (not that those are mutually exclusive or anything).
I've always loved computers though and have been fascinated by code as a creative medium.
I jumped on Linux train just recently, in October 2007. I'd been curious about Linux for years, but had been so transient for so long I often didn't even own my own computer.
Now that I'm settled I'm running Ubuntu 7.10 on my Dell laptop and I keep playing around with various other distros on an old pentium ii I hide off in a corner of our apartment.

I love the open source movement on both a practical and political level. Linux has completely stolen my heart. I keep skeeming ways to try to get my father to move his entire company to Linux.

Learning about Linux and now teaching myself some programming has presented a fun new challenge for me. I get bored when I'm not learning new skill sets and this is the latest. It's been both fun and empowering.
As far as choosing Ubuntu goes, I chose it as my first distro because of the amazing community support. It has been invaluable.

I may be lacking in some of the tech knowledge others here may have but I'm no slouch with computers and a I am a fast and eager learner.

Outside of Linux, I love to cook. I'm also a book junky and a film nerd. I'm huge music collector going back to my childhood. Sometimes I'm involved in local theater, but not so much these days. I also play a couple instruments and like to write silly music with my friends.
I enjoy a drink at the Rover on occasion.

I know it's lame but if you'd care to know more I do have a Facebook profile (just search my name), or feel free to email me anytime. I'll check out the IRC channel sometime soon.

I'm looking forward to a LoCo meeting anytime. I hope we can all meet and have a great Ubuntu time.

matthewcraig
March 18th, 2008, 08:04 PM
Hello - a couple of us have been in the team IRC channel discussing the idea of hosting a 8.04 Ubuntu Release Party. We were thinking Saturday May 10th would be a good day and also Manchester would be a central NH location.

We're still brainstorming on the type of event - eating or activity - and on the location for the event. Also wondering how many people can commit to that day. (Yes, everyone would like to come, everyone is busy, but do we have a couple people who can commit to being present?)

Check out the freenode chat or post your thoughts here. Looking forward to hearing from you.

employeeno5
March 19th, 2008, 08:33 PM
I'll keep that weekend free; I've got nothing planned right now. I'm not sure what kind or location or itinerary works best but if I get any ideas I'll post back. In the mean time though, count on me keeping my schedule clear for that date.

matthewcraig
March 31st, 2008, 05:32 PM
Everyone get an account on Launchpad and apply to our LoCo Team. That team list is used for our mailing list, too.

Also, consider signing the Ubuntu code of conduct (CoC), for your Ubuntero status.

enp3
April 5th, 2008, 03:46 AM
Hello everyone,

My name is Evan, I currently live in Dover and go to UNH. I haven't really adopted Ubuntu for a desktop but have been using 6.06 server edition for awhile now running all kinds of things like jetty, james, and openfire. I don't have much experience with X, but I certainly enjoy the server edition.

I hope to have the opportunity to get to know all of you and maybe one of you can convince me to switch my desktop over :)

-Evan

matthewcraig
May 13th, 2008, 06:52 PM
Great to see you out to celebrate the release of version 8.04, on Elm Street. Fantastic to meet some interesting people who are also interested in promoting Ubuntu. Let's keep this enthusiasm going and lose track of proposed projects. I know I personally am looking to follow-up on several items.

We have scheduled a meet-up, on the second weekend of June. A potential discussion topics might include Software Freedom Day in September, and getting everyone registered as an Ubuntero within Launchpad. Are there people planning to attend the big Fedora FUDCon in Boston? If so, we might strategize on a team event there.

I hope everyone is happy with the direction of our new LoCo. We have established that there are several people willing to come out and attend events to promote Ubuntu, which is a big leap forward from a group who only meets online. Keep thinking about ways to promote Ubuntu in the community - remember, you do not need the group's permission to start on projects or coordinate with other members. The group is here to help you access resources and people, so let us know how we can help. Take the lead on a personal project, even if you think it might be a duplication of someone else's work. :) Hope we all have new exciting stories to share, soon.

Matthew

P.S. You may be interested in these stories which I have been reading today:

Mark Shuttleworth describing the effectiveness of the Ubuntu release cycle:
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/date/2008/05

"commercial companies are realizing that the term 'open source' can be co-opted to some degree, and are starting to confuse us with software that is mostly, but not completely open source" ((... or why the license (and not the marketing hype) is important))
http://ostatic.com/161583-blog/read-the-fine-print-on-open-source-software

matthewcraig
May 29th, 2008, 04:53 AM
The next Ubuntu Local Community Team meeting is scheduled for Saturday the 14th, at 4 o'clock. Send a private forum message to any team member listed above, if you plan to attend and have not already received the meeting agenda and location details.

matthewcraig
June 25th, 2008, 08:44 PM
This last meeting had real terrific energy, when members discussed their on-going projects and identified resources for achieving their goals. Best of luck, and remember to use the resources of the team, in your projects. For those reading who are not active in organizing these events, then stay tuned for the Ubuntu NH events happening in your area.

ahood
August 18th, 2008, 08:17 PM
Hello,

I am a new member applicant to the Loco New Hampshire group. I live in Southern New Hampshire, just below Manchester. I moved to New Hampshire in the summer of 2006. I am originally a mid-westerner, but enjoy living in the Northeast very much.

I have been using GNU/Linux since 2000 and began my Ubuntu experience with Breezy. I stay up-to-date with Ubuntu releases. Hardy is what I use currently. I joined the Ubuntu forums in October of 2004. Although I have contributed a limited number of forum threads and posts, I have used the Ubuntu forums to seek help and provide help to others.

I have promoted the use of GNU/Linux and/or Ubuntu to others within my family and friends. My wife uses Ubuntu (Dapper) and kids use Xubuntu (Feisty). My mom and dad have a System76 Darter laptop running Ubuntu Gutsy. A friend of mine (non-techie) purchased a Dell Ubuntu Feisty system after being introduced to Beryl.

In addition to desktop systems, I currently run a Mythbuntu (Gutsy) system. I have built two Mythbuntu systems for friends of mine, which has been a great way to introduce GNU/Linux to non-linux people. I also have an Axentra homeserver running GNU/Linux (unknown distribution) that serves many functions (firewall, email, webserver, file server etc.).

I joined this loco group in the hopes of promoting Ubuntu to people within New Hampshire. Activities include, but not limited to, exchanging of ideas and working a couple times a year in projects that promot Ubuntu.

Al (a.k.a. DrH)

ArcRiley
August 19th, 2008, 07:31 AM
Welcome, Alan

If you've not done so already, make sure to join our team's mailing list. You can also find us on IRC. As you may have noticed, the forums are not used very frequently.

You just missed our last monthly meeting (Saturday), I don't know if we're having one next month due to Software Freedom Day but we'll certainly get together sometime in September.

ahood
August 20th, 2008, 03:05 AM
Welcome, Alan

If you've not done so already, make sure to join our team's mailing list. You can also find us on IRC. As you may have noticed, the forums are not used very frequently.

You just missed our last monthly meeting (Saturday), I don't know if we're having one next month due to Software Freedom Day but we'll certainly get together sometime in September.

Thanks ArcRiley!

I signed up to the NH Loco Team mail list and working on the Ubuntu CoC.

Al

GCG199
October 17th, 2008, 06:37 AM
Hello everyone, I recently joined the NH mailing group list and would like to meet other Ubuntu users in New Hampshire.

I just joined the forum and will be checking back.