The Ubuntu Chronicles: Amber’s Adventures in the Community :)

Part 38

Release Party and Reflection

It’s been almost 3 months (May 12 will be 3 months), since I began this journey in the world of Ubuntu. Guess what? Ubuntu is for human beings, I am learning new things every day, and every day I come across something new that makes me want to learn more. It could be something as simple as a “hey check this out” or as complex as Bazaar, that makes me want to dig a little deeper. However, truth be told, I think it is the personalities of the Ubuntu Community that I really enjoy. My Mac was just a computer that allowed me to do the things I wanted to. It was a machine that I used. When I installed Ubuntu it seemed to take on a life of it’s own. Not only was there an operating system for the machine of my choice, but with a closer look, I found there is a whole community dedicated to making Ubuntu better for all users. It is lively and open to the world. I think it is like so many other things in life, you get out of it what you put into it. I never thought about investing my time into what makes an Open Source community work, or what makes my computer work, but I find myself lost in conversations about both now, and to think it all started with a T-shirt and an installation CD for Intrepid. WOW! I wonder where I will be a year from now.

The NC LoCo Team held two parties on April 23rd, 2009. The party I attended was held at The Flying Saucer in Raleigh, NC. There was also a party in Winston Salem NC.

The party in Raleigh started at 6pm and lasted until…I had to leave about 9:45pm but I was told some people stayed until after 11pm.

There was about 15 to 20 people and putting faces with IRC nicks was a fun part of the evening. I was happy to see such a great turnout. It was awesome to see smiles, hear the laughter, and learn what things people liked about the world of Open Source and Ubuntu. I got a chance learn about the TriLUG in the area as there were so many things to learn from everyone. I hope we can all get together again soon.

The Flying Saucer is using Ubuntu pens we gave them the night of the release party. I have even gotten some text msgs from various people who told me they have gone to The Flying Saucer since our release party and they have been trying to snatch the pens. I think a few people have succeeded and it is becoming a neat little game in the Open Source Community around the area to swap out the pens with other Linux distro’s. I think it’s great. Keeps the conversation flowing about Linux and Ubuntu in particular.

There were some new people that signed up for the NC LoCo Mailing List and have popped in on the #ubuntu-us-nc Channel in Freenode as well. Hope to see them at our next LoCo Meeting on May 7, 2009 at 7pm EST.

It was great to see everyone hanging out and coming together under the common theme of Jaunty! Can’t wait to see what Karmic Koala brings to the table.

There were a couple of Canonical folks who came to the release party. Ken VanDine and Brad Crittenden . It was great having them there and talking about all the cool things they are working on – Desktop, Gwibber, Launchpad and more! Thanks Ken and Brad!

Ken and I had a great talk about Gwibber and the new notifier. I told him I deleted it because it looked like an email notification, and I didn’t like it. However, after talking to Ken about it I reinstalled it (it even has a new look) and I thought I would try it out. I am not sure what is so special about it. I’ll keep using it and seeing what about it I just can’t live without. 🙂 I like Gwibber but this applet I am not so sure about. Maybe I just need to get used to it. However, it is still there and I am still using it. Side note I still have the other notifier there as well.

I am also reading up on Ayatana. Jono Bacon has a neat write up on Ayatana on his blog which is where I first read about it. There is plenty read and learn about before Karmic comes along.

What else has been happening since the release party?

Let’s see Ubuntu Open Week is currently underway. There is 3 days left of it. You can see the schedule here and the logs here. I am so new to this, I only logged into #ubuntu-classroom, thank goodness someone was kind enough to remind me that I needed to log into #ubuntu-classroom-chat to participate in the discussion (Thanks Jorge!). One day I may get it right but for now I am learning as I go. Sometimes it’s sunshine and roses other days it is a painful exploration of what is out there. I think it’s great how much stuff you can learn in an hour. Take a look and see if there is anything that you want to know about in what’s left of the line up, or if there was something you missed take a look at the logs. Enjoy!

I am reading about Bazaar now. It kinda’ makes sense to me, but not totally yet 🙂 Before now I heard my husband talk about “trees” and “branches” and it was Greek to me. At least I can point someone to the right web page to learn about it and I did at least get it installed so that is a good thing. (I think?) So much to learn…:) (Thanks emmajane for the class)

Oh and one last thing I was wondering about, “Is it too early to ask for a Koala on the Wallpaper?” 😛 😉