Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
Also takes a lot of fiddling about to set up a custom Debian desktop and I don't have time to make a habit of it. It's a while since I reviewed all the packaged lightweight desktops and there's been a lot of development since then, I'll have a look at Peppermint. There was an Ubuntu-lite version which seems to have died - I also rather liked the Fluxbuntu effort - but that also seems to have died. It is a bit of a gap with Ubuntu - it'd be great if there was a version as lightweight as Fluxbuntu was and yet useable for web, Abiword etc for non-techies. Paula I tried a custom Debian desktop once, for the folks who I gave Xubuntu to (on the P3 800's) and somehow they managed to break it within a day. :-) Next time I do anything on any older hardware I'm going to give Peppermint Linux a try, it looks to be better matched to old hardware as it runs LXDE. Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
On 20 July 2010 11:54, pmgazz pmg...@gmx.co.uk wrote: Also takes a lot of fiddling about to set up a custom Debian desktop and I don't have time to make a habit of it. It's a while since I reviewed all the packaged lightweight desktops and there's been a lot of development since then, I'll have a look at Peppermint. There was an Ubuntu-lite version which seems to have died - I also rather liked the Fluxbuntu effort - but that also seems to have died. It is a bit of a gap with Ubuntu - it'd be great if there was a version as lightweight as Fluxbuntu was and yet useable for web, Abiword etc for non-techies. That is what Ubuntu Lite tried to be - later rebadged U-Lite. We never got the critical mass together, though. :¬( http://u-lite.org/ Now the mantle seems to be passing on to Lubuntu. Me, I'm watching Crunchbang with interest, but it's not a beginners' distro. -- Liam Proven • Profile links: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lpro...@gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven • MSN: lpro...@hotmail.com • ICQ: 73187508 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
Thanks - I'll have a look at Lubuntu when I get a minute :) Crunchbag looks interesting but interface needs to be for beginners when dealing with non-techies . . . On 20/07/10 14:51, Liam Proven wrote: That is what Ubuntu Lite tried to be - later rebadged U-Lite. We never got the critical mass together, though. :¬( http://u-lite.org/ Now the mantle seems to be passing on to Lubuntu. Me, I'm watching Crunchbang with interest, but it's not a beginners' distro. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 2:51 PM, Liam Proven lpro...@gmail.com wrote: Me, I'm watching Crunchbang with interest, but it's not a beginners' distro. Crunchbang is awesome - I set it up for my wife who was complaining about performance on her EEEPC 701, and have since run it on other hardware that has less than impressive resources, but where a desktop environment is needed. To be fair, once i'd actually set it up so the menu's made sense for her and she had all the apps she needed she was fine and hasn't asked for any support on it since. She's not the kind of user who makes changes to her machine every day, but she does use email and the web heavily, work in spreadsheets and word processor documents and she's really happy with it. Interested to try the new version with the Debian base when it gets into Beta... P -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
On 20 July 2010 15:25, Paul Morgan-Roach roa...@roachy.net wrote: On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 2:51 PM, Liam Proven lpro...@gmail.com wrote: Me, I'm watching Crunchbang with interest, but it's not a beginners' distro. Crunchbang is awesome - I set it up for my wife who was complaining about performance on her EEEPC 701, and have since run it on other hardware that has less than impressive resources, but where a desktop environment is needed. To be fair, once i'd actually set it up so the menu's made sense for her and she had all the apps she needed she was fine and hasn't asked for any support on it since. She's not the kind of user who makes changes to her machine every day, but she does use email and the web heavily, work in spreadsheets and word processor documents and she's really happy with it. Interested to try the new version with the Debian base when it gets into Beta... Indeed so. I have tried the alpha in a VM and it looks good - even sleeker and skinnier than before. Real Debian is getting pretty good these days - it's smaller and faster than Ubuntu and the default Gnome desktop is much the same. It was just that getting firmware for my wifi card and so on was a bit of a pain. It is vastly easier to get up and running than it used to be - ironically, one of the main reasons Ubuntu itself was created. Debian is catching up and itself is now a sort of quite viable Ubuntu Light. If Crunchbang can prune Debian down and make it easier to get the few proprietary bits one needs working, it will be quite an interesting solution... -- Liam Proven • Profile links: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lpro...@gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven • MSN: lpro...@hotmail.com • ICQ: 73187508 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 4:05 PM, Liam Proven lpro...@gmail.com wrote: Real Debian is getting pretty good these days - it's smaller and faster than Ubuntu and the default Gnome desktop is much the same. It was just that getting firmware for my wifi card and so on was a bit of a pain. It is vastly easier to get up and running than it used to be - ironically, one of the main reasons Ubuntu itself was created. Debian is catching up and itself is now a sort of quite viable Ubuntu Light. Indeed - I found this recently and started a thread about it. The proprietary driver issue is a bit of a pig, but I have full respect for where the Debian project is coming from. I'm running a few Debian servers around the place now and loving it, and the desktop I have runs like a charm - as I have suggested previously it seems surprisingly fast from a cold start compared to my last Ubuntu install. My first thoughts when installing for the first time in a while was When did Debian get a graphical installer?? -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
Sounds like I ought to revisit Debian installation . . . On 20/07/10 16:20, Paul Morgan-Roach wrote: On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 4:05 PM, Liam Provenlpro...@gmail.com wrote: Real Debian is getting pretty good these days - it's smaller and faster than Ubuntu and the default Gnome desktop is much the same. It was just that getting firmware for my wifi card and so on was a bit of a pain. It is vastly easier to get up and running than it used to be - ironically, one of the main reasons Ubuntu itself was created. Debian is catching up and itself is now a sort of quite viable Ubuntu Light. Indeed - I found this recently and started a thread about it. The proprietary driver issue is a bit of a pig, but I have full respect for where the Debian project is coming from. I'm running a few Debian servers around the place now and loving it, and the desktop I have runs like a charm - as I have suggested previously it seems surprisingly fast from a cold start compared to my last Ubuntu install. My first thoughts when installing for the first time in a while was When did Debian get a graphical installer?? -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
Hey! We seem to be quite good at turning up to technical events such as LUG meetings, technical conferences and other self-organised events and telling everyone how great Ubuntu is. However we seem to spend a lot of time preaching to the converted, speaking to people who already run Ubuntu or some other distro, rather than 'converting' people who have little or no exposure to Ubuntu. Amber Graner recently wrote about her experience evangelising and advocating at a local Goat Festival. She was also interviewed about this on the Full Circle Magazine podcast recently. http://akgraner.com/?p=471 http://fullcirclemagazine.org/2010/07/15/full-circle-podcast-10-trawling-the-internet-for-a-goat-festival/ When I heard about this it made me think that it's something we should think about. Not specifically Goat festivals, but non-technical events. I wanted to canvass the group to see what events people might want to have a presence at. I'm not (at this point) asking for volunteers, but just ideas of events where people go and we might be able to have a stand where we could talk to people about Ubuntu and how they might want to use it. These could be non-technical business events, they might relate to a specific sector such as education, or they could be cultural events like festivals. Anything goes really. I'll start the ball rolling with a fairly generic example that pretty much anyone here can do:- Village Fêtes - these attract families from all walks of life, and would be a great opportunity to have a public stand at little or no cost to run. Other attractions could include simple games (always popular at Fêtes) with prizes perhaps donated by community members, sponsors or (if willing/possible) Canonical. With summer coming it would be a great opportunity to get geeks _outside_ in the sunshine and show off what we have to offer. What events local to you would you like to see a stand at? I also posted this on my blog where there may be other suggestions. http://popey.com/blog/2010/07/19/ubuntu-at-non-technical-events/ Cheers, Al. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
On 19/07/10 11:53, Alan Pope wrote: What events local to you would you like to see a stand at? The West Dean Chilli Fiesta! http://www.westdean.org.uk/Garden/News%20and%20Events/ChilliFiesta.aspx Al -- The Open Learning Centre http://www.theopenlearningcentre.com -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
Environmental events are good, foreground stuff like how to refurbish their XP kit and keep perfectly good electronic kit out of landfill . . . Paula On 19/07/10 11:53, Alan Pope wrote: Hey! We seem to be quite good at turning up to technical events such as LUG meetings, technical conferences and other self-organised events and telling everyone how great Ubuntu is. However we seem to spend a lot of time preaching to the converted, speaking to people who already run Ubuntu or some other distro, rather than 'converting' people who have little or no exposure to Ubuntu. Amber Graner recently wrote about her experience evangelising and advocating at a local Goat Festival. She was also interviewed about this on the Full Circle Magazine podcast recently. http://akgraner.com/?p=471 http://fullcirclemagazine.org/2010/07/15/full-circle-podcast-10-trawling-the-internet-for-a-goat-festival/ When I heard about this it made me think that it's something we should think about. Not specifically Goat festivals, but non-technical events. I wanted to canvass the group to see what events people might want to have a presence at. I'm not (at this point) asking for volunteers, but just ideas of events where people go and we might be able to have a stand where we could talk to people about Ubuntu and how they might want to use it. These could be non-technical business events, they might relate to a specific sector such as education, or they could be cultural events like festivals. Anything goes really. I'll start the ball rolling with a fairly generic example that pretty much anyone here can do:- Village Fêtes - these attract families from all walks of life, and would be a great opportunity to have a public stand at little or no cost to run. Other attractions could include simple games (always popular at Fêtes) with prizes perhaps donated by community members, sponsors or (if willing/possible) Canonical. With summer coming it would be a great opportunity to get geeks _outside_ in the sunshine and show off what we have to offer. What events local to you would you like to see a stand at? I also posted this on my blog where there may be other suggestions. http://popey.com/blog/2010/07/19/ubuntu-at-non-technical-events/ Cheers, Al. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
On 19/07/10 13:21, pmgazz wrote: Environmental events are good, foreground stuff like how to refurbish their XP kit and keep perfectly good electronic kit out of landfill . . . Paula I agree, someone in our local LUG donated a couple of old PCs (I think they were around early Pentium 2's) to a local nursery, one was running Windows and another was running some Linux distro, turns out the kids preferred the Linux PC and I believe Windows was replaced with Linux too. Also in our local LUG we've installed an LTSP server and 6 client machines (old Dell P3's which were donated by a local business) at a local community centre. The server (albeit a rather beefy, if not too beefy) is running as an LTSP server running Ubuntu 8.04 and the clients netboot. It was great to see the machines actually being used at an open day, I believe they're really benefiting the community as some folks in the area can't afford internet access or don't have a computer at home and they can pop down to the community centre and get access to the internet and learn computer skills, and the kids (especially the older teens) like to go down in the evenings and browse the Internet giving them something to do in a safe secure environment. I'm hoping as a LUG in Devon we can start to do more of this in the future, I'd even refurbish machines and stick Ubuntu on them if it wasn't for another guy on our local Freecycle list who gets old machines, refurbishes them and sticks Windows XP and Office 2003 on them (I think he's either got a whole load of Office 2003 licenses he wants to give away or he's installing pirate copies of the software, however good his intentions are I'm sure one day he'll come unstuck). Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
On 19/07/10 11:53, Alan Pope wrote: Hey! We seem to be quite good at turning up to technical events such as LUG meetings, technical conferences and other self-organised events and telling everyone how great Ubuntu is. However we seem to spend a lot of time preaching to the converted, speaking to people who already run Ubuntu or some other distro, rather than 'converting' people who have little or no exposure to Ubuntu. Amber Graner recently wrote about her experience evangelising and advocating at a local Goat Festival. She was also interviewed about this on the Full Circle Magazine podcast recently. http://akgraner.com/?p=471 http://fullcirclemagazine.org/2010/07/15/full-circle-podcast-10-trawling-the-internet-for-a-goat-festival/ When I heard about this it made me think that it's something we should think about. Not specifically Goat festivals, but non-technical events. I wanted to canvass the group to see what events people might want to have a presence at. I'm not (at this point) asking for volunteers, but just ideas of events where people go and we might be able to have a stand where we could talk to people about Ubuntu and how they might want to use it. These could be non-technical business events, they might relate to a specific sector such as education, or they could be cultural events like festivals. Anything goes really. I'll start the ball rolling with a fairly generic example that pretty much anyone here can do:- Village Fêtes - these attract families from all walks of life, and would be a great opportunity to have a public stand at little or no cost to run. Other attractions could include simple games (always popular at Fêtes) with prizes perhaps donated by community members, sponsors or (if willing/possible) Canonical. With summer coming it would be a great opportunity to get geeks _outside_ in the sunshine and show off what we have to offer. What events local to you would you like to see a stand at? Well a few of us in the Devon Cornwall LUG try and get to events when we can, unfortunately our resources are limited (there are at best about 10 of us out of say 200 or so) actively going out to events and this mainly seems to be in South Devon although I believe a couple of members in Cornwall have been doing bits and pieces. Such events I can think of that we've attended are a local community fun day (kind of like a fete) where in the LUG we had a stall and handed out free copies of Ubuntu 9.04 (this was last summer) and copies of The OpenDisc along with flyers about Ubuntu and The OpenDisc, stickers for the kids (Paul Sutton who is on this list printed a load of Tuxes on small round Avery labels). I think in the end all the discs were snapped up along with some flyers, I believe we managed to get one new member come along to our LUG meetings. We also had a stall at the Exeter Hospital Radio Fun Day back in 2007, we managed to get a couple of PCs for this and a generator so we were able to demonstrate Ubuntu (7.04) running on the PCs. We were trying to sell copies of Ubuntu (self burnt discs) and The Open Disc to visitors along with giving out flyers. We gave away quite a few flyers but didn't do so well selling the discs (the idea was that the money raised would be donated to the Hospital Radio funds). It also didn't help being a really sunny day with no shade so a lot of the time no one could see the screens. Both these events though were non-technical community events. I think part of the problem is those of us who went along aren't that confident talking to strangers (I'm getting more confident). It's been nearly a year since we've done anything but with summer coming up I'm hoping that we might be able to get to a couple of more events such as a Surestart Childrens Centre event coming up in August. I'm hoping we might possibly be able to setup a couple of machines running Tuxpaint and have a stack of discs to give out and possibly follow it up with an install day or maybe offer to assist folks if they decide they want to migrate to Ubuntu or dual boot. Rob I also posted this on my blog where there may be other suggestions. http://popey.com/blog/2010/07/19/ubuntu-at-non-technical-events/ Cheers, Al. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
I've done a bit of this - I've demo'd an Ubuntu LTSP and also laptops at voluntary sector events - people don't 'get' what an operating system is and tend to think that MS Win is 'part of the machine'. They have to have a reason for considering changing OS and I find that being able to help the environment and save money at the same time is a powerful incentive to consider something new. Paula On 19/07/10 13:42, Rob Beard wrote: On 19/07/10 13:21, pmgazz wrote: Environmental events are good, foreground stuff like how to refurbish their XP kit and keep perfectly good electronic kit out of landfill . . . Paula I agree, someone in our local LUG donated a couple of old PCs (I think they were around early Pentium 2's) to a local nursery, one was running Windows and another was running some Linux distro, turns out the kids preferred the Linux PC and I believe Windows was replaced with Linux too. Also in our local LUG we've installed an LTSP server and 6 client machines (old Dell P3's which were donated by a local business) at a local community centre. The server (albeit a rather beefy, if not too beefy) is running as an LTSP server running Ubuntu 8.04 and the clients netboot. It was great to see the machines actually being used at an open day, I believe they're really benefiting the community as some folks in the area can't afford internet access or don't have a computer at home and they can pop down to the community centre and get access to the internet and learn computer skills, and the kids (especially the older teens) like to go down in the evenings and browse the Internet giving them something to do in a safe secure environment. I'm hoping as a LUG in Devon we can start to do more of this in the future, I'd even refurbish machines and stick Ubuntu on them if it wasn't for another guy on our local Freecycle list who gets old machines, refurbishes them and sticks Windows XP and Office 2003 on them (I think he's either got a whole load of Office 2003 licenses he wants to give away or he's installing pirate copies of the software, however good his intentions are I'm sure one day he'll come unstuck). Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
On Mon, 2010-07-19 at 13:42 +0100, Rob Beard wrote: if it wasn't for another guy on our local Freecycle list who gets old machines, refurbishes them and sticks Windows XP and Office 2003 on them (I think he's either got a whole load of Office 2003 licenses he wants to give away or he's installing pirate copies of the software, however good his intentions are I'm sure one day he'll come unstuck). If that were my Freecycle group I'd contact the mods and ask them to make sure they are legal copies! Dianne -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
On 19/07/10 15:24, Dianne Reuby wrote: On Mon, 2010-07-19 at 13:42 +0100, Rob Beard wrote: if it wasn't for another guy on our local Freecycle list who gets old machines, refurbishes them and sticks Windows XP and Office 2003 on them (I think he's either got a whole load of Office 2003 licenses he wants to give away or he's installing pirate copies of the software, however good his intentions are I'm sure one day he'll come unstuck). If that were my Freecycle group I'd contact the mods and ask them to make sure they are legal copies! Dianne Why on earth doesn't he put Ubuntu on them? (I finally remembered to bottom post!) -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
On 19 July 2010 11:53, Alan Pope a...@popey.com wrote: What events local to you would you like to see a stand at? If you know of any specific events near you, maybe you could add them to this page:- https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/NonTechEvents Cheers, Al. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
On 19/07/10 14:16, pmgazz wrote: I've done a bit of this - I've demo'd an Ubuntu LTSP and also laptops at voluntary sector events - people don't 'get' what an operating system is and tend to think that MS Win is 'part of the machine'. They have to have a reason for considering changing OS and I find that being able to help the environment and save money at the same time is a powerful incentive to consider something new. In my case I wasn't changing the OS, they didn't have any computers to start with and I managed to source some old desktops (again with no OS) and funding for a server, monitors, keyboards, mice and custom built cabinets. Luckily the centre manager was aware of Open Source and wanted some 'green' machines (i.e. lower power consumption). I see what you mean though about some people's perception, one good reason for switching is if they have older hardware, especially anything that might be running Windows 2000 (unlikely but you never know), they could find that older kit might run better with something like Xubuntu or as LTSP clients. Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
On 19/07/10 15:39, pmgazz wrote: On 19/07/10 15:24, Dianne Reuby wrote: On Mon, 2010-07-19 at 13:42 +0100, Rob Beard wrote: if it wasn't for another guy on our local Freecycle list who gets old machines, refurbishes them and sticks Windows XP and Office 2003 on them (I think he's either got a whole load of Office 2003 licenses he wants to give away or he's installing pirate copies of the software, however good his intentions are I'm sure one day he'll come unstuck). If that were my Freecycle group I'd contact the mods and ask them to make sure they are legal copies! Dianne Why on earth doesn't he put Ubuntu on them? (I finally remembered to bottom post!) Maybe he doesn't know about Ubuntu or isn't used to it. I'm probably going to send him a quick e-mail saying that he's probably better putting Ubuntu or something along those lines (even Linux Mint) on there and explain that there is a large community out there (the local LUG for instance, and if he chooses Ubuntu, the Ubuntu forums and Ubuntu-UK mailing list) for support. Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
P3s run great as thin clients (just need a pxe card) and the ubiquitous P3 compaqs have them already. But if people haven't got any money at all, the the LTSP option is a stretch as they need at least one halfway decent machine - but if they can stump up a couple of hundred quid for a basic dual-core with 2GB+ RAM it'll work great. I've tried using single-cores (AMD Sempron and various Intel) with 1GB RAM and it sort of works OK but you get a hellish lag if 3+ people use OOo at the same time - which isn't great for a production environment. OK if all people will do is surf the web though. P3s can't run Xubuntu standalone for any sensible use - even the first generation XP PCs can't without a RAM upgrade (any P4 will do but 512 is the min RAM if you don't want to have time to make and drink a cuppa each time you open an OOo doc) - and a gig is more like it if you ask me. Again, you can get away with Xubuntu standalone on P4 with 256 MB RAM as long as no-one's going to try to get much more ambitious than surfing the web. Older than that and it's gulp Puppy . . . or a custom Debian desktop. Paula On 19/07/10 15:50, Rob Beard wrote: On 19/07/10 14:16, pmgazz wrote: I've done a bit of this - I've demo'd an Ubuntu LTSP and also laptops at voluntary sector events - people don't 'get' what an operating system is and tend to think that MS Win is 'part of the machine'. They have to have a reason for considering changing OS and I find that being able to help the environment and save money at the same time is a powerful incentive to consider something new. In my case I wasn't changing the OS, they didn't have any computers to start with and I managed to source some old desktops (again with no OS) and funding for a server, monitors, keyboards, mice and custom built cabinets. Luckily the centre manager was aware of Open Source and wanted some 'green' machines (i.e. lower power consumption). I see what you mean though about some people's perception, one good reason for switching is if they have older hardware, especially anything that might be running Windows 2000 (unlikely but you never know), they could find that older kit might run better with something like Xubuntu or as LTSP clients. Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] Non Technical Events
Totally agree -- really important to stay positive and focus on benefits. Also agree that speed and relief from 'drive by' downloads etc is a major selling point :) Paula One thing I've learned after years of attending trade and techie exhibitions is that knocking the opposition doesn't actually work. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
On 19/07/10 15:47, Alan Pope wrote: On 19 July 2010 11:53, Alan Popea...@popey.com wrote: What events local to you would you like to see a stand at? If you know of any specific events near you, maybe you could add them to this page:-http://childrensweek.co.uk/home.htm https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/NonTechEvents Cheers, Al. Sounds like a great idea, I've just added Torbay's Childrens Week Festival (http://childrensweek.co.uk/home.htm) in August. I'll ask one of my contacts if it's possible for us to get some sort of stand. Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
On 19/07/10 13:42, Rob Beard wrote: I'm hoping as a LUG in Devon we can start to do more of this in the future, I'd even refurbish machines and stick Ubuntu on them if it wasn't for another guy on our local Freecycle list who gets old machines, refurbishes them and sticks Windows XP and Office 2003 on them (I think he's either got a whole load of Office 2003 licenses he wants to give away or he's installing pirate copies of the software, however good his intentions are I'm sure one day he'll come unstuck). I would kindly point this chap at the following story and probably suggest he desist rather pronto... http://openbytes.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/microsoft-test-purchasing-a-pc-near-you-watch-out-small-business/ Al -- The Open Learning Centre http://www.theopenlearningcentre.com -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
On 19/07/10 16:10, pmgazz wrote: P3s run great as thin clients (just need a pxe card) and the ubiquitous P3 compaqs have them already. But if people haven't got any money at all, the the LTSP option is a stretch as they need at least one halfway decent machine - but if they can stump up a couple of hundred quid for a basic dual-core with 2GB+ RAM it'll work great. Yep, we were lucky with the installation in Exeter, I was working for a local radio station who had a charitable trust and I was able to help the community centre get some funding to buy some monitors and a server. Sadly this charity is no longer running. In the current project we're working on we've had a donation of a Xeon server. It's not the fastest server ever but it's a dual CPU capable server (Netburst Xeon) and upgradable so for now they might have to make do with getting some cheap memory and upgrading it to 2GB and maybe adding an extra CPU (or upgrade the existing 2.4GHz CPU to two 3GHz CPUs). I've tried using single-cores (AMD Sempron and various Intel) with 1GB RAM and it sort of works OK but you get a hellish lag if 3+ people use OOo at the same time - which isn't great for a production environment. OK if all people will do is surf the web though. Yep, the one thing I have found even with a fast server and dedicated 100Mbit to each client, things like Flash do run a bit slowly, well things like Youtube do. I'm guessing it's because there's a lot of data being shifted about (this was with 6 clients at 100Mbit each attached to a Gigabit switch (the server has a Gigabit port on it). P3s can't run Xubuntu standalone for any sensible use - even the first generation XP PCs can't without a RAM upgrade (any P4 will do but 512 is the min RAM if you don't want to have time to make and drink a cuppa each time you open an OOo doc) - and a gig is more like it if you ask me. Again, you can get away with Xubuntu standalone on P4 with 256 MB RAM as long as no-one's going to try to get much more ambitious than surfing the web. Actually I installed Xubuntu on a P3 800 laptop with 192MB Ram and it wasn't too bad. Okay it was slow with Flash and Youtube was pretty much unwatchable but for web browsing and Abiword it was reasonably okay. If I was going to be giving out standalone machines though I'd probably try and give out at least P4 or Athlon XP's with 512MB (or more) memory. I've done two of these in the past, an Athlon XP 1700+ with 512MB Ram for a friend's mother (now running Ubuntu 9.10) which works fine (little bit slow at times but works fine for what she wants, Word Processing, Internet browsing and Skype) and an Athlon XP 2000+ with 640MB Ram for a local community project, again runs fine for what they want. Later on I'm going to be sorting a PC out for the kids, it's a bit better spec, Celeron 3.33GHz (I've mislaid my P4 2.8), 1.25GB Ram running Ubuntu 10.04 probably. I'm even going to give Userful a try for multi-seat (I figured I can turn the machine into 2 PCs and stop the kids squabbling). Older than that and it's gulp Puppy . . . or a custom Debian desktop. I tried a custom Debian desktop once, for the folks who I gave Xubuntu to (on the P3 800's) and somehow they managed to break it within a day. :-) Next time I do anything on any older hardware I'm going to give Peppermint Linux a try, it looks to be better matched to old hardware as it runs LXDE. Rob -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Non-technical events?
I'm hoping as a LUG in Devon we can start to do more of this in the future, I'd even refurbish machines and stick Ubuntu on them if it wasn't for another guy on our local Freecycle list who gets old machines, refurbishes them and sticks Windows XP and Office 2003 on them (I think he's either got a whole load of Office 2003 licenses he wants to give away or he's installing pirate copies of the software, however good his intentions are I'm sure one day he'll come unstuck). I should drop him an email and point this out to him. I've done this myself, and had Are you sure? type replies. When I point out the Office costs £400 odd and MS might get annoyed, they normally stop. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
