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RedPandaFox
April 8th, 2008, 04:01 AM
G'day, didn't know where to post this so I posted here, I'm and Australian, moving to England with my girlfriend (from Bristol) for a year or two and I just wanted to guage the number of Linux users from England and to ask some questions so im hoping someone out there can help me?

1) how big is linux over there?
2) Any Linux based educational courses? Like IT etc or just general learning?
3) Where is a good place to live?
4) Do you know of any good Aussie style pubs over there?

Any answers would be great, and I'm hoping there are lots of nice English people who can help me out :)

ubuntu-freak
April 10th, 2008, 12:20 AM
Plenty of English and Scots here :-). Don't think I've seen any Welsh actually.

How big is Linux here? Hmm not sure....it's getting more attention though, thanks to Ubuntu. I try to do my part locally as well.

Linux courses? I did a Google search and there appear to be plenty, would be shocking if there wasn't.

Where is a good place to live? Well, if you have the money - London. Why? Cos it's London, there's an unlimited amount of things you can do, plus those damn Aussie bars (http://www.fluidfoundation.com/topten.asp?TopTen_ID=8) are all in London. ;-)

Nathan

bruce89
April 10th, 2008, 12:22 AM
/me grumbles about how people call the country "England" when it is currently "United Kingdom".

I can't admit to knowing what an Australian pub would even look like (sorry).

Joeb454
April 10th, 2008, 12:23 AM
I know of a Welsh user (Linux & the forums :))

And I think the eeePC helps with Linux getting "bigger"

Also I'm a Linux user, and I live in the UK :) In case you didn't already know!

Malcy
April 10th, 2008, 12:24 AM
I'm British (Scots), so I don't really fit your request. However I use Linux in England.:)

A$h X
April 10th, 2008, 12:27 AM
I'm spreading the good word of linux in london. Well, I'm impressing my friends with ubuntu anyway. As for aussie pubs, there's loads of walkabout pubs in london, and something called the church where lots of aussies and kiwis go. (Not the religious church, it's a bar where people gather on sunday afternoon's to get pissed!)

scragar
April 10th, 2008, 12:28 AM
I'm also from the UK, gotta say linux isn't so big around here, but I'm trying to change that(burnt about 20 liveCD for gutsy, gonna stick them in the local libary machines when they boot them tomorrow, nice suprise for them :P -- leave a note explaining it though, don't want to have people confused).

I've also done my stay in curry's explaining to people how, simply by switching to linux they can save £50+(£75+ for vista) off their computers prices, and with no lack in functionality.

bruce89
April 10th, 2008, 12:28 AM
Thinking about it, our rugby team must know of some (considering 2 of them are from there).

ubuntu-freak
April 10th, 2008, 12:32 AM
/me grumbles about how people call the country "England" when it is currently "United Kingdom".

I can't admit to knowing what an Australian pub would even look like (sorry).


Haha. It could've been more inclusive I guess, but maybe he IS actually moving to England.

Nathan

P.S. Wicked Scottish name you got there Bruce.;-) My first name is Hebrew and my last name Irish....hmmm.

bruce89
April 10th, 2008, 12:38 AM
Haha. It could've been more inclusive I guess, but maybe he IS actually moving to England.

Nathan

I realise that, but it still doesn't change the name of the country (yet).

Sydney's the biggest city of Victoria. There we go.

ubuntu-freak
April 10th, 2008, 12:49 AM
I realise that, but it still doesn't change the name of the country (yet).

Sydney's the biggest city of Victoria. There we go.


Not sure what you mean - Victoria is a state, England, Scotland and Wales are countries.

Nathan

bruce89
April 10th, 2008, 12:51 AM
Not sure what you mean - Victoria is a state, England, Scotland and Wales are countries.

Nathan

I'll shut up.

RedPandaFox
April 10th, 2008, 03:14 AM
Sorry if my knowledge of the UK is limited, all we real learn about it over here is the Westminster system as it is a major part of primary schooling to learn about governments.
What have people heard about the walkabout group? I have been looking at getting a job through them. Anyone know how they treat there workers? Also we are looking at living in England itself which is why I was referring to England specifically, although we may live in south Wales with my girlfriends father for a while.
And im not taking a dig at anyone but I have heard that a lot of English have a rather dry sense of humour compared to Australians, we tend to make a lot of jokes at our friends, and I can see how it might be taken offensively for people who don’t get our sense of humour, and my girlfriend warned me I might get hurt if I make some of the jokes we are used to over here at many people over there? (Yes, yes, that was a very large generalisation) I’m not saying anything bad just asking if this is the case.
Also a lot of what we here about England in the news is riots etc and what we see on TV. Now of course I do not want to listen to what I here on TV as gospel so I thought id try any find out what its like from the people from there myself.

Also, sorry for generalising England as the country. And Sydney in Victoria… :p Well I guess some people think Tasmania is a country but then again that could be because they all sleep with there cousins

scragar
April 10th, 2008, 03:57 AM
as for the whole humour thing I'm not sure, with people I know and around the same age(I'm 21) people don't mind offensive humour for the most part(I know one very religious individual who goes mad if you even use the work "god" though, so he doesn't count), while people over around 30 don't appear to get the humour at all...
Either way I'd just be carefull, nothing worse than offending someone before they even get to know you.

Riots only seem to be at football games(to the best of my knowledge, but then I don't watch TV...), and even then only the major teams.

Pieboy337
April 10th, 2008, 04:06 AM
I live in a little town in Surrey, and out of everyone I know in the area, I am the only linux user. But as for humor, we do have a pretty "dry" sense of humor I suppose, but thats what makes it so amusing. Just sit down and watch the entire Monty Python series before you come over, and you should be all set. :)

RedPandaFox
April 10th, 2008, 04:09 AM
Riots only seem to be at football games(to the best of my knowledge, but then I don't watch TV...), and even then only the major teams.
Yeah I have noticed that much... "football" (We call it soccer because football to many of us is AFL) has gotten big here over the past 1-3 years, we have a national league now, since the league went national, the number of sport related riots have massively increase (in the past 10 years I hadn’t heard of any in Aus related to AFL, and rugby league or union)
Then again you probably have all heard of the Australia day Cronulla riots a few years back? So I guess we all here only select amounts of the extremists riots

RedPandaFox
April 10th, 2008, 04:15 AM
Just sit down and watch the entire Monty Python series before you come over, and you should be all set

Lol, well I am a MASSIVE Monty python fan, I guess I do love a lot of British comedy. Big big fan of The Goodies, Faulty Towers, etc (when we had pay TV at home I pretty much just watched UKTV channel) I was just a bit worried because I heard some rumours bout lack of sense of humour, plus the way Aussi and American TV portrays the Poms is a bit dry and bland (people don’t take offence to Poms do they?)

Pieboy337
April 10th, 2008, 04:16 AM
Thats the beauty of football. If your country comes in and beats us at a game of football, then that means we will have to beat up all your fans. Its just the way it works and always has worked. The great thing about football in England, is during the football season everyone will have their British flag waving outside their homes and will all be cheering England on as they go out for battle. Unfortunately I havnt been able to keep track of most of my favorite teams because I was living in the USA for a while. Manchester United is the best way to go.

Faulty Towers is another good one by the way, but if you enjoy all that, you should be ok. As for calling the English poms, it really depends on who you say it to. Some may just get a laugh out of it, and some might want to fight you. Some might not even know what it means since thats a more Australian slang. Best to just say it around people you know well.

buried
April 10th, 2008, 04:23 AM
I don't live in England, but I'm English, and I surely don't reccomend living in London if you want city hustles, etc..
go to a town like Manchester or Blackpool, nice places :)

RedPandaFox
April 10th, 2008, 04:26 AM
One thing I’m a little worried about is your accents, come times I wont understand some people, and some times I tend to randomly burst out giggling (like when my cousins come to stay) I met my girlfriends grandmother when she was out in Australia... she was talking to me and I was just like :confused:

Pieboy337
April 10th, 2008, 04:31 AM
Accents are always hard whenever you move places. When I moved over to the US for a while, I never understood a word anyone was saying. I would also end up mocking people a lot, which didn't land me with many friends. Just try your best to hold in your laughter or else you might offend someone. You will get used to it quicker than you think I bet.

RedPandaFox
April 10th, 2008, 04:44 AM
I’m a bit worried ill pick up a bit of an accent too although, I love my Aussie accent and after just 2 years in Aus, my girlfriend lost a bit of her English accent and developed some Australian in there, (Part of the reason I want to go back with her is for her to get more English accent back ;)) When she goes back to see her friends, they make fun of her because she sounds "Aussie" but to me it is definitely English.
The general consensus seems that I shouldn’t be looking at moving to London?
Ok, well I’m either looking at bartending at an Aussie style pub, or something in finance, computers, or video games. Also needing cheep place to live but not to dodgy. I’m working in Finance and video game sales atm. Any suggestions on where’s good to live/work?

bailout
April 10th, 2008, 06:56 AM
London is easy to get some sort of work and has a huge amount of things to do esp if you are into partying. There are also millions and millions of young aussis here. It is also dirty, overcrowded, and extortionately expensive, esp accomodation which is of a uniformly low standard. For a young person wanting a fun time for a short time you can't go wrong with London. However, it is exactlt the same reasons that make it very difficult to build a long term life here for natives who are a bit older like myself. In the last couple of years rental costs have gone through the roof.

As to accents, you will rarely hear an English accent in London these days, in fact, a large proportion of people here won't be speaking english at all.

There must be heaps of info, advice and guides out there for aussis moving here as London is full of them and has been for years. One website that you might want look at is Gumtree http://www.gumtree.com/ It started as an aussi site but is now the main site for accomodation etc and has some forums.

As to humour, the first thing I have noticed with aussis is that they love insulting others as a 'joke' but are very bad at taking it when it is returned at them. Insulting humour between friends is very common here but get to know someone first and then don't do it if you are not prepared to take people taking the p**s out of you and Australia in response. Remember you will not be in australia surrounded by aussis making fun of non-aussis anymore.

Also if you do go to London please make the effort to get out and see other parts of the UK as well. I have met so many foreigners who never make it out of London. Esp as an aussi you could come to London, live in an aussi houseshare, work with other aussis, socialise in aussi pubs/clubs but in that case why come? London does not equal the UK!. There are many other parts of England that are very different and I have even heard rumours of uncivilised wildernesses beyond the western and northern borders but they are probably best avoided tbh.

John T. Monkey
April 10th, 2008, 12:41 PM
I recommend Newcastle. The only Aussi pub I knew there is now a completely different pub, but it is a very nice city, the night life is great, and theres plenty of tourist attractions and other nice places around.

Maybe worth a visit if you're getting out of london to see the rest of it.

Ozor Mox
April 10th, 2008, 12:54 PM
Greetings!


1) how big is linux over there?
2) Any Linux based educational courses? Like IT etc or just general learning?
3) Where is a good place to live?
4) Do you know of any good Aussie style pubs over there?

1) I'm not sure what you mean by how big exactly, but from what I can gather, the user base is reasonably sized in the UK. I know at least from my own experience that lots of people I know either use or have heard of it.

2) Everything I have learnt has been using online resources or experimentation, or from these invaluable forums. I don't know of any courses, but I have no doubt they exist.

3) I am strongly biased towards the south of the country :)

4) I know of two, I'm not sure if they are chains or not though, and therefore whether you can find them elsewhere. Those are Outback (Bordon) and Walkabout (Reading).


Any answers would be great, and I'm hoping there are lots of nice English people who can help me out

There are lots here. Any questions, just shout :)

oomingmak
April 10th, 2008, 01:03 PM
/me grumbles about how people call the country "England" when it is currently "United Kingdom".
What are you talking about?

England is a country, and that is where Bristol is located (which is where the OP is moving to).
He's not living in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all at the same time.


Edit: I just saw that reassuringlyoffensive beat be to it.


Victoria is a state, England, Scotland and Wales are countries.

AndyCooll
April 10th, 2008, 01:19 PM
I’m a bit worried ill pick up a bit of an accent too although, I love my Aussie accent and after just 2 years in Aus, my girlfriend lost a bit of her English accent and developed some Australian in there, (Part of the reason I want to go back with her is for her to get more English accent back ;)) When she goes back to see her friends, they make fun of her because she sounds "Aussie" but to me it is definitely English.
The general consensus seems that I shouldn’t be looking at moving to London?
Ok, well I’m either looking at bartending at an Aussie style pub, or something in finance, computers, or video games. Also needing cheep place to live but not to dodgy. I’m working in Finance and video game sales atm. Any suggestions on where’s good to live/work?
And depending on where you end up living you might even pick up a regional accent too!

Saying you should or shouldn't live in London is a bit like saying you should or shouldn't live in Sydney.

London is where everything is that most foreigners recognise from TV. However, as you'll know from your own country, the capital isn't the only place to live, there's a whole country to explore! Living in the capital is fine if that's what you want, living in one of the other big conurbations can also be an excellent experience. And as a provincial Mancunian I can recommend Manchester for instance.

With regard to humour, you'll be fine! ..."Ignore him, he's an Aussie, he knows no different!!" :)

As for Linux penetration, it depends on how you look at it. I wish ithere were far more users, but on the positive side there are plenty of active LUG's, it's the home of Ubuntu itself, and there always seem to be quite a few UK users on these forums.

:cool:

X_CheshireCat_x
April 10th, 2008, 01:20 PM
hey mate. i think if you can find the right group of friends you'll fit right in. my group of friends have a very dry sense of humour but we just love insulting each other... walkabouts are all over the country, there such a massive chain that i cant imagine you can probably get a TRANSFER reasonably easily if you land up in an area you dont like...

there is a north / south divide!!! i have lived in both and can say i prefer living in london because theres so much to do... up north the people are a tiny bit more friendly. but that again thats just from my experiance

good luck x

Shakey_Jake33
April 10th, 2008, 01:34 PM
A Bristolian here =P Linux penetration here is probably about the same as in America. At a desktop level, most computer-literate people have heard of it, but only a handful have tried it.

England most certainly is a country, and people will lynch you for suggesting otherwise :) England/Wales/Scotland may make up the UK, but you'll find people refer to their own individual countries, national pride and all that. For the record, no-one here says 'Britain' or 'Great Britain', it's only really in common use in America. I agree that people 'up north' tend to be more friendly. My mother's side of the family is from Yorkshire and I spend a lot of time up there... you'd say hi to someone if you walked past them in the street up there, you'd find that less down here.

caravel
April 10th, 2008, 01:48 PM
1) how big is linux over there?
Not very, generally windows has the strangle hold and companies are not very innovative with respect to IT over here. It's not uncommon to find smaller companies still running Windows 98 or 95. As far as home users are concerned I can only go by my own experiences: It's slow catching on.

2) Any Linux based educational courses? Like IT etc or just general learning?
I've never seen/heard of any but I'm sure they must exist?

3) Where is a good place to live?
You'd have to do some research of your own on that one.

4) Do you know of any good Aussie style pubs over there?
The "warm beer" thing is a myth. Lager/beer is drank chilled, whereas ale should be served at room temperature but you'll find that served chilled as well, so in reality there is no "warm beer" drinking going on.

DrMega
April 10th, 2008, 02:07 PM
1) how big is linux over there? - Hard to say really. My gut feeling is that it is not that big amongst the masses, but it quite popular among the techies.

2) Any Linux based educational courses? Like IT etc or just general learning? - Dunno, I haven't seen many.

3) Where is a good place to live? - You've already said you are going to Bristol. Expect rain. The west of Britain gets more rain than the east. Also, if you wander too far out of town, down't expect to be able to understand anybody. The west country is nice in parts, and I suspect Bristol would be a good base if you are going to get a car over here. You'll be within an easy drive of parts of Wales, the cotswolds, the south west coast.

4) Do you know of any good Aussie style pubs over there? - Does Walkabout count? They tend to have pretend Crocodiles hanging from the ceiling and sell Kangaroo burgers, I suspect that's the closest you're going to get (although I suspect that is about as Aussie as a pub that had morris dancing and singing is typically English). Most pubs sell Castlemaine XXXX and/or Fosters if that counts:)


/me grumbles about how people call the country "England" when it is currently "United Kingdom".

No, the country is England, which is one of several countries (including Scotland) that makes up the United Kingdom. So called because once upon a time in history, the monarchs of the neighbouring countries all got together and agreed to stop fighting each other, and form a United Kingdom that would work as a collective against any foreign threat.

edm1
April 10th, 2008, 02:21 PM
I'm from the northeast of England but live in Edinburgh.

Firstly, if you move to the south of England DON'T believe what the people say about the north of England. We're not all neanderthals and anyone that says that has probably not been any further north than Birmingham.

Where abouts in Australia are you from? How old are you? What kinda stuff are you into? England might be a small place but there's a hell of a lot of variety, more so than i found in Australia. London is not the place to live if havent got much money. I was going to recommend Edinbrugh but it's not that much cheaper to be honest and it's not in England.

Places you might want to check out (slighly biased to the north): MANCHESTER, Newcastle, Bournemouth. If you want somewhere a bit smaller York, Durham (but then you might as well be in Newcastle), EDINBURGH.

About the Aussie bars, they tend to be really characterless chain pubs with aussie signposts and maps of australia all over the walls and tend to attract people who are just out to have a few cheap drinks and get pissed. But then again they are chains so they treat their staff pretty well.

Aye, our sense of humour's fine. I agree not many english know you have to give as good as you take when an Aussie takes the **** out of you but as long as you dont direct your "humour" towards chavs (you'll quickly learn who they are) you're not going to get yourself into trouble.

RedPandaFox
April 10th, 2008, 02:29 PM
Most pubs sell Castlemaine XXXX and/or Fosters if that counts:)

Haha, just so people know, no one but tourists drink fosters, it was big in the '70s but since then, no one drinks it, and castlemain xxxx just called four X over here.
Aussie alcohol to try is VB [thats what fair dinkum blokes drink] and Bundy rum [what all other guys drink]

I'm a Bundy fan myself.
I want to try spend a bit of time in London. I'm a country kid, never lived in the city, I look out my window and all I see is bush and horses. As for a car, my girlfriends dad was in the panel beating business, so i can get myself on easy but i'm tempted to go a motorbike.
Also, anyone know how prevalent utes are?

TomMK
April 10th, 2008, 02:31 PM
No, the country is England, which is one of several countries (including Scotland) that makes up the United Kingdom. So called because once upon a time in history, the monarchs of the neighbouring countries all got together and agreed to stop fighting each other, and form a United Kingdom that would work as a collective against any foreign threat.

That's not strictly true. The king of Scotland became king of England as well when Elizabeth I died without an heir. There was no agreement to stop warring. We still hate each other. ;) (joke).

RedPandaFox
April 10th, 2008, 02:38 PM
Where abouts in Australia are you from? How old are you? What kinda stuff are you into?

I'm from a little town, outside ALBURY in New South Wales, its half way between Sydney and Melbourne, my village is called Jindera, and has a rather famous museum, [jindera pioneer museum]
Because I'm so used to such clean air, seeing bright stars [my girlfriend had never relay seen the full starlit sky till she came to my house] I cant stand the pollution even in Sydney so i doubt i will be able to breath at all over there from what i hear.

I'm 18 now, will be 19 when I come over, and I'm into video games, computers and thats bout it, lol

caravel
April 10th, 2008, 02:42 PM
That's not strictly true. The king of Scotland became king of England as well when Elizabeth I died without an heir. There was no agreement to stop warring. We still hate each other. ;) (joke).

And for those that don't know, Wales is not strictly a country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_and_Wales

beefcurry
April 10th, 2008, 02:47 PM
Im living in London :), there are great pubs all around here. LOADS of Frosters if you like it, I havn't seen much Victorian Bitter if you like that more.. Linux isn't big, quite a few people know about it but not alot of people actually use it! I do hope the situation improves sometime soon.

ubuntu-freak
April 10th, 2008, 02:55 PM
Wow... this thread has come to life. It looked it was heading to oblivion when I was searching the Cafe, so I just had to reply. Must have been the time of day you posted RedPandaFox:)

Nathan

TomMK
April 10th, 2008, 02:59 PM
And for those that don't know, Wales is not strictly a country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_and_Wales

Wales is very much a country in it's own right, as the link you provided states.

RedPandaFox
April 10th, 2008, 03:03 PM
Wow... this thread has come to life. It looked it was heading to oblivion when I was searching the Cafe, so I just had to reply. Must have been the time of day you posted RedPandaFox:)

Nathan
I didn't get any reply for a day or so, someone just happened to pick it up and ran with it. Its good to see that there are so many helpful people out there [gah I don't know what to call it anymore after all the discussions bout country's lol]

edm1
April 10th, 2008, 03:03 PM
Also, anyone know how prevalent utes are?

For anyone who doesnt know, a ute = a pickup. Yeah there's utes but there bloody expensive to buy/run/insure. Insurance works differently over here in that you dont just insure the car you have to insure individual people on the car so the costs is related to your age/driving experience/the cost of the car/the power of your car. If you're only 18 or 19 you want to be looking at something old and not very powerful. Not sure about bikes.

I remember passing through Albury, literally drove through it though. I wouldnt really recommend living in the countryside as soon as you move out here. It'd be pretty difficult to meet people and make friends. I found that in Australia it was all about living in the suburbs of a city but thats definately not the case here, as soon as you start moving out of the centre it is just housing and starts getting a bit rough.

RedPandaFox
April 10th, 2008, 03:15 PM
I remember passing through Albury, literally drove through it though

Haha, yeah, it would have taken like 30 mins to get through Albury up until last year, the highway was through the city center, now, they cut a road right through the place and it takes only 5 mins now.

And I have been told that 'Roo bars are baned over there? Haha, even my sisters little ford focus over here has a massive roo bar as big as the car, and she lives in the city.
Insurance shouldn't be that big of an issue, as I said my girlfriends day did work in panel beating, he is now car insurance.
But I want myself a ute. If we move back in the future, I'm bringing over a big new holden SS club sports ute. :)

And a blue healer cattle dog to boot

edm1
April 10th, 2008, 03:21 PM
Yeah we dont have so many roos over here. Utes aren't so popular unless your a farmer. Mainly because it's the equilalent of about 2.3 AUD a litre for petrol.

DrMega
April 10th, 2008, 03:22 PM
I want to try spend a bit of time in London.

London is OK for a weekend, but much more than that and you'll run out of money, either because it is so expensive or because someone has relieved you of your wallet (on that latter point - seriously take care. I once nearly had to fight a pick pocket whose hand was within about an inch of my wife's handbag zipper. She never noticed a thing and the only reason I did is because I looked round by chance for no particular reason). The other thing to note is that despite being the Capital, London is not very representative of English cities.

Someone suggested York and Durham - both of which are really nice places and are about as "typically English" as any, with old architecture, winding rivers that contain actual water instead of filth, and a selection of independant pubs and shops etc.


I'm a country kid, never lived in the city, I look out my window and all I see is bush and horses. As for a car, my girlfriends dad was in the panel beating business, so i can get myself on easy but i'm tempted to go a motorbike.

If you grew up in the country and are planning to live in a big town or city, I suspect the biggest culture shock will be the pure ignorance of many people. As for the motorbike, great but remember the weather is cold and wet here a lot of the time.


Also, anyone know how prevalent utes are?

Not that prevalent, but they are gaining ground. They are not logical for use in urban areas though because if you leave anything at the back, some chavs will nick it while you're waiting at traffic lights.

All that said, England and the UK in general is a land of contrast. Here's a quick geography lesson of all you need to know:

In the North the people are generally freindlier but can be harder to take, as we northerners tend to speak our minds whereas down south they tend to keep themselves to themselves much more. In the north don't find it odd if you see a lass drinking from a pint glass, but this generally is less accepted in the south. The west gets most of the rain but the east gets the cold wind that comes down the north east cost from the arctic.

The people in the countryside are generally more freindly than in the towns, and the beer is better in the countryside, where you are more likely to find real ales (often locally brewed).

If you see a group of people wearing tracksuits or shell suits, ignore them, especially if they have immaculately clean white trainers and a baseball cap. These are "chavs", basically humanoid but an evolutionary spin-off that seems immune to most known pest control measures.

Visit some of the national parks if you get time. The Lake District is amazing country, with amazing scenery, real ale pubs (complete with real log fire) and towns that look like how "tradional England" is portrayed to foreigners. The Peak district is Englands most visited park, but in my opinion it is unimpressive when compared to the Lakes, the Yorkshire Dales and North Yorks.

In terms of towns, go to Blackpool once, just to see why it is so horrendous. On the sea front look for the museum that actuals claims to have stuffed aliens and alien artefacts (the proprieters are not even joking). The add to your list: Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Portsmouth, York, Durham (sorry for the largely Northern bias - I have been to many places in the south but generally don't like them much so can't recommend them, except Portsmouth).

My last piece of advice is this, if you go out for a night out in any of the larger towns or cities, try to take someone with local knowledge. If that's not feasible, my rule of thumb is that my likelihood of going into a particular pub is inversely proportional to the number of door stuff. Oh, and if there has been a football match that day involving a local team, take extra care, especially if the local team lost.

RedPandaFox
April 10th, 2008, 03:24 PM
Yeah we dont have so many roos over here. Utes aren't so popular unless your a farmer. Mainly because it's the equilalent of about 2.3 AUD a litre for petrol.
-.-'' Looks like its walking for me, I am kicking myself for petrol at 1.5 AUD a liter, but thats with a tank of a car. I remember people complaining when petrol went up to 0.80 AUD a liter...

ubuntu-freak
April 10th, 2008, 03:30 PM
London is OK for a weekend, but much more than that and you'll run out of money, either because it is so expensive or because someone has relieved you of your wallet (on that latter point - seriously take care. I once nearly had to fight a pick pocket whose hand was within about an inch of my wife's handbag zipper. She never noticed a thing and the only reason I did is because I looked round by chance for no particular reason). The other thing to note is that despite being the Capital, London is not very representative of English cities.

I completely love London, despite the smell. If I had the money, I'd live in London and then fup off to the countryside now and then to chill.

Nathan

RedPandaFox
April 10th, 2008, 03:31 PM
What you call a 'chav' we call a bogon, seems to be the same description, cept they teen to breed in a suburb of Melbourne called Frankston. Also there is a vast range of bogons in Adelaide if you believe the rumors
As to the weather, I'm going to die of the cold. I'm used to hot Aussie summers, then I'm going over to your winter.... when your summer is like our winter.... making it.... some sort of SUPER WINTER -gasps-

[Australian joke] 'What is Adelaide?.... proof Tasmanians can swim'

Shakey_Jake33
April 10th, 2008, 03:44 PM
I completely love London, despite the smell. If I had the money, I'd live in London and then fup off to the countryside now and then to chill.

Nathan
On the other hand, there's not enough money in the world to pay me to live in London. By contrast, I'm going up to Yorkshire (Sheffield) to the uni there in September, and I'm really looking forward to living up there for 4 years.

It's not true that people are more 'proper' down here in the south, and girls drink from pint glasses all the time =P Another stereotype. At least in Bristol. But linguistically, northern dialects tend to be much more to the point. My mother, who is from Yorkshire, is always getting herself into trouble down here in Bristol because she has such a blunt way of phrasing things, and doesn't realise it. I'm used to it because I spend loads of time in Yorkshire anyway.

btw expect to get a lot of attention, you will be noticed if you have a strong Aussie accent. Rest assured, Australians (and Canadians) are generally viewed in a very positive manner.

Tomosaur
April 10th, 2008, 03:49 PM
G'day, didn't know where to post this so I posted here, I'm and Australian, moving to England with my girlfriend (from Bristol) for a year or two and I just wanted to guage the number of Linux users from England and to ask some questions so im hoping someone out there can help me?

1) how big is linux over there?
2) Any Linux based educational courses? Like IT etc or just general learning?
3) Where is a good place to live?
4) Do you know of any good Aussie style pubs over there?

Any answers would be great, and I'm hoping there are lots of nice English people who can help me out :)

I live in Liverpool :)

1) Not that big. A lot of people know that it exists, but a lot of these don't know exactly what it is. I have seen a lot of university students switching to Mac and Linux lately though, particularly Ubuntu when it comes to Linux switchers, so it may be gaining momentum.

2) I am in my final year of a software development course. We had to use Linux and Windows. The only reason Windows is installed on the machines really is that for people who aren't comfortable in Linux, Windows is there. We had to log in through Windows and then connect to a Linux box and use it remotely. I got the feeling from the tech staff that there was quite a bit of resentment about being forced to have Windows the primary OS on all the comp-sci department computers (licensing issues and such, probably).

3) Liverpool! Well, it's a great city, but the council was just voted the worst in the UK. We're European Capital of Culture for 2008, so naturally the council has been frittering away millions of pounds of taxpayers' money. The only noticeable difference is that the city is now basically a massive building site. There are thousands of new apartments that nobody can afford to live in, and they've basically killed off a lot of the culture that did exist. The problem is that the council leaders are too out of touch with the citizens of Liverpool. They get all these stupid ideas for something 'cultural' without talking to the people of Liverpool. They even hired an Aussie as their cultural director a while back, but she buggered off and took a load of money with her without actually accomplishing anything. As far as most Scousers are concerned, the capital of culture was foisted onto us and now we're expected to play up for the rest of the world - so the council has been killing off real Liverpool culture and replacing it with some art-school dropout version of 'global culture' or something. Whatever, we'll still be here in 2009!

We are still a very musical city (and no, we don't all go around copying The Beatles :P), so if you like music you can't go wrong really! We do have a lot of art, museums, interesting architecture and general 'culture stuff', too. We have a very diverse population, too - after native UK people I think the second largest ethnicity in Liverpool are the Chinese, but there has been a big increase in Eastern European people recently. We also have a lot of Irish, and most native Scousers have at least some Irish blood in them. Despite bad press from the likes of The Sun newspaper, idiot conservatives like Boris Johnson, and our old enemy Manchester (:P), we are mostly very friendly people. I was talking to a visitor from London a few weeks ago and he kept talking about how different it is from London - everyone is a more open and generally more approachable. Obviously there are a few people who do their best to ruin it for everyone else, but on the whole we tend to look out for one another.

4) Not too sure what you mean by an Aussie style bar, but there is a place in the city centre called Walkabout, which is supposed to be some kind of Australian themed place. It has the best air conditioning of any bar in town, but it's a little too trendy for my liking.

Oh, and as for humour, Liverpool is well known for its sense of humour. We can do the insulting (in a friendly way!) humour you Aussies tend to like, we like being sarcastic, and we can do the just 'stupid' comedy which you see in Monty Python and stuff. We are also known for being very quick-witted / 'wise-cracking' (if you prefer that term). If there's one thing you want to do if you're up against a Scouser, it's pick your words carefully. We are quick to turn whatever you say into a joke, regardless of who you are and how embarrassing it will be for you. Although I said we don't go around acting like The Beatles, it's worth watching a few Beatles interviews or something on Youtube - they had a great sense of humour, and you'll tend to find it a lot here if you come for a visit :P

Blackmag+c
April 10th, 2008, 04:07 PM
suffolk. England.

Hometown - bristol.

DrMega
April 10th, 2008, 04:17 PM
[QUOTE=Shakey_Jake33;4690030...and girls drink from pint glasses all the time =P Another stereotype. At least in Bristol.[/QUOTE]

Bristol is in "the west country" though, so it is OK for girls to drink properly. If you spend much time in the South East (which is distinctly different from the South West), you'll note that people there are much more uptight about things. If I was forced to move back to the south (I did my stint down south for a while), I would choose the South West over the South East every time.

herbster
April 10th, 2008, 06:11 PM
I was born in England but the family was only on a lengthy vacation, came right back to Canada a few months after. Still have some relatives over there.