[03:26] <cbq> This an ok place for ubuntu questions?
[03:39] <pleia2> cbq: you'll have better luck in the support channel #ubuntu we develop ubuntu classes here
[03:42] <cbq> ok thank you
[06:11] <doctormo> pleia2: About your blog entry about the FREE GEEK PENN group. Perhaps I could help since MA already does what your proposing.
[06:23] <doctormo> pleia2: Heh, out of curiosity I did a google maps search to see how long it would take to get to where FREE GEEK is from Boston, 12 days... or there abouts, by foot. 355 miles. ha
[16:35] <pleia2> doctormo: yeah, we're looking to use some of the beginner courses developed with this project (or to be developed) to move forward on our stuff over at freegeek
[16:36] <doctormo> pleia2: I figured that might be the case, I was just interested since we've been doing that sort of thing for over a year and a half. Educating the public and so on.
[16:38] <pleia2> doctormo: cool, I'll have to pick your brain about it some :)
[16:38] <pleia2> we did it previously with a project over at Mount Airy Learning Tree, but that wasn't as successful as we would have liked linux-wise
[16:39] <doctormo> pleia2: We don't mention the L word
[16:40] <pleia2> I know, we didn't, it was all about Ubuntu
[16:41] <doctormo> pleia2: Odd, although not unheard of to have falling outs.
[16:42] <doctormo> pleia2: Most NGOs want the technical advantages and skill we can offer, but soundly reject anything other than windows.
[16:42] <pleia2> it wasn't really a falling out, I think our volunteers just got bored of explaining super basic stuff
[16:42] <pleia2> having course material would help, we winged it a lot
[16:43] <doctormo> So for instance, the educational sessions on Tuesdays, we also do free support and people bring in windows computers and we have to explain that we will not help people fix those computers unless they _want_ to upgrade their machines to Ubuntu.
[16:44]  * pleia2 nods
[16:45] <doctormo> pleia2: Although we're also doing refirbished machines all with Ubuntu on them. Mainly because of cost, but also because people who go home with ubuntu never seem to come back with any problems.
[16:51] <pleia2> somewhat unfortunately for us, freegeek is a non-profit that gets windows licenses for $5
[16:52] <pleia2> for them the trouble they had with Ubuntu was more expensive than the $5 licenses
[17:09] <doctormo> pleia2: There is a center here that does that
[17:10] <doctormo> pleia2: But Ubuntu i about Control. We can do what We want to do. and those windows dudes are still installing anti-virus and personal attention to every single target deployed. Which is a waste of time.
[17:11] <doctormo> But most of the problems are educational with the people doing the deployment
[17:11] <doctormo> We've had the greatest sucess in explaining foss, what it means and why it's important
[17:11] <pleia2> yeah, I think re-engineering the approach is what's going to be important
[17:12] <pleia2> this organization didn't really have any linux experts, they just tossed ubuntu on the refurbed machines and sent people on their way
[17:18] <doctormo> pleia2: Which can be a mistake, if you don't install restricted-extras and medibuntu, then there can be a perception that it can't do the majority of things.
[17:19] <pleia2> doctormo: the one guy who used linux at all was deploying with automatix :(
[17:20] <pleia2> we were like "EEEK NO! restricted-extras and medibuntu!"
[17:20] <pleia2> except we tried to say it nicely (not sure if we succeeded, hehe)
[17:31] <doctormo> pleia2: Yea, it took me some time to get the language right. although it's still important to talk about freedom, because then people feel connected to it as more than just technoledgy that can be replaced by windows later.