[Ubuntu-be] ubuntu-be.org at computer fairs

[Mark Van den Borre]

Hi all,

The past month, ubuntu-be.org volunteers have organised four Ubuntu
booths at Dipro computer fairs in Charleroi, Antwerp, Leuven and
Liège. Imagine the archetypical computer fair: some technically
skilled versus others who think they are (a bit like Hackles versus
Preston[1]), end users, cheap CD-r's, new and second hand hardware,
fancy PC gadgets.

When interacting with people instead of computer screens, interesting
things happen:

* Leuven fair, 14.00. We've almost run out of pressed CD's. If we want
to keep handing them out, we'll have to burn copies ourselves. But all
the CD-r salesmen have just been a raided by Auvibel levy officials.
Surrealistic. We are in a fair hall with tens of thousands of empty
CD's. We want to make copies of free software, but we can't, because
every single booth that sells CD-r's has just been torn down by the
levy police. Luckily, around 15.30, a stack of 100 CD-r's mysteriously
falls from the sky into our booth.

* Leuven fair. A 76 years old man and his wife come by.
me: "Ever heard of Ubuntu, sir, madam?". You never know...
grandpa: "Sure. We use it."
me: "Oh, nice. And, any experience you would want to share?"
grandpa: "Well, I like it much better than Windows. I was a bit afraid
of installing new software, but it all went really smoothly. I feel
much more at ease with Ubuntu. And I like Gimp for editing photos."
This old couple made a few hearts melt...

* Liège fair, 15.30. Many visitors are returning home already. I feel
like doing something I haven't done for ages: play a game of Tuxracer.
Seems it got renamed to Planet PenguinRacer since I last played it.
One minute later, I have three kids and their father standing next to
me. Guess I should leave the computer to the kids and explain their
dad about Ubuntu.

* Liège fair, half an hour before closing time. An old truck driver comes by.
"I saw this Ubuntu demo and I just bought this laptop. It's my first
computer. Could you help me install Ubuntu on it?"
"We could try. Let's have a look"
"Hm, why don't you do it yourself? Here's current and a CD."
Half an hour later. Closing time. A man leaves with his freshly
installed laptop. Proud of his unknown computer installation skills.

* Antwerp, Leuven, Liège: the ever reoccurring surprised African
theme. What happens when an African visitor suddenly sees a word in
his native language, printed in letters half a meter high, at a
computer fair, a word that gives him a warm feeling? Enthousiasm.
Determination. "I want that on my computer. Nothing else!"

If you ever see one of the following ubuntu-be.org people, buy them a
drink. They deserve it for their work organising these fair booths.
Their names, in no particular order: Luc Arits, Jeroen Wouter,
François Cauwe, François Schoubben, Annelies Bollen, Christophe
Vandeplas, Adriaan Leijnse, Benoit Plunus, Etienne Saliez, Cedric
Janssens & nephew, Réginald Ratz, Mark Van den Borre, Toni Van
Remortel, Yves Jans, Adrien Verlee and the anonymous missionaries I
forgot.

[1] http://hackles.org/cgi-bin/archives.pl?request=342

Mark
ubuntu-be.org
-- 
Mark Van den Borre
Noormannenstraat 113
3000 Leuven, België
+32 486 961726