Central Pennsylvania Linux Users Group Installfest/New User Meeting

Coming up this Saturday (5/19) at ITT Tech in Mechanicsburg from 10a-6p!

I'll be doing a short presentation on the different flavors of Ubuntu - Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and Xubuntu at noon.

Everyone is welcome... Bring food. :-)

More information is here.

Game Night!

Rummikub, Sequence and Yahtzee

Family game night! I love this. Riley, my eldest son, is here this weekend, which is always fun. We are playing board games, and at ten he is getting really fun with the games.

His tennis coach didn't show up for practice and game today. I filled in with another Dad. I have played competitively before and he had not even played so, I was the defacto coach. She hasn't been really teaching them much, more like getting them used to balls coming at them.

I don't think they have worked on grip or watching the ball everywhere it goes (although they are kids so that is a challenge) or even worked on stroke. So I didn't know what to try to do with them. Some of the kids have some real talent.

Regardless, it was a good time and I hurt right now... My hamstring is killing me.

Declan, our two year old, was red as an apple out there. I think it was the heat that did it more than the sun since he had sun block on. He fell asleep really early this evening, so I think the air and the sun (as well as the constant running around outside the courts) wore him out.

Approval may be aways off for the PA LoCo Team

Well, Jono has indicated that it may be difficult to get approval without a listserv in place. Worse news is that our request could be delayed for an unlimited amount of time.

We have some choices here. We can continue on and hope that everything that we have scheduled and done will qualify us, and per Jono that seems unlikely.

Or we can set up our own mailing list somewhere else.

Or we can sit and wait.

It's a bit of a setback, but it shouldn't stop the Pennsylvania LoCo team from moving forward with our plans and continue expanding our programs!

Here it goes.... This week we go for Approved Status

The Pennsylvania LoCo Team is going for approved status. I will contact Jono Bacon, the Community Manager at Canonical who will give us guidance as far as where we stand, and when we can expect to go in front of the Ubuntu Community Council to try for approval.

I think that we are looking good for approval. We have 39 direct members since our creation in March, many of which are active. We have a Feisty Release Party scheduled in Montrose for May 17th, will be working together with the Central Pennsylvania LUG for their InstallFest/New User Meeting on May 19th near Harrisburg, and there is an PA LoCo team Installfest slated for June 2nd in Philadelphia.

The PA LoCo website is up at www.meetlinux.com

Our IRC channel is on freenode #ubuntu-pennsylvania

Our wiki is at wiki.ubuntu.com/PennsylvaniaTeam

Finally, here's our team site on Launchpad

I feel good about this, and think that we are definitely on track to helping the Ubuntu Community gain market share.

Dell, Microsoft, and Novell, Oh My!

Here's an interesting article. The Ubuntu deal may have been announced first, but Dell seems to be investing deeper into Linux. On Sunday, Dell signed a deal with Microsoft and Novell to offer Enterprise Suse Linux on servers.

The full story by Elizabeth M. Gillespie of the Associated Press is here: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070507/dell_microsoft_novell.html?.v=8

While Ubuntu seems to be Dell's choice for the desktop market, Suse will take the server side.
I am curious to see how this shakes out. Comments are welcome here for this story!

Podcast for Ubuntu Weekly News (UWN)

See the following link for the UWN. I am hoping to put together a podcast for this. I will start playing with it this week.

http://fridge.ubuntu.com/uwn

Technorati

Technorati Profile

Ubuntu and Dell... Dellbuntu?

Good news for the world of Linux and specifically Ubuntu. Dell will start selling computers with Ubuntu preinstalled.

Check out this article from ZDnet.

Now Linux may have more leverage with the hardware manufacturers for drivers... And going mainstream can only help Linux!

Ubuntu and the Pennsylvania LoCo Team

I've started the Pennsylvania LoCo Team to help promote the spread of Ubuntu!

As of March we've added 37 members and have already coordinated an Installfest in Philly, are supporting a speech to the Pennsylvania Computer Society in Philly, and participating in the Central PA Linux User Groups.

This is pretty exciting stuff and it will only gain momentum. Check us out at the website, the forum, the IRC freenode channel #ubuntu-pennsylvania, or the wiki.