[ubuntu-in] Inviting Ideas for Promoting Linux in Engineering College

[Vishal Rao]

On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 11:41 PM, Manish Sinha
<manishsinha.tech at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi people,

I graduated (escaped) from MIT in '98 with a degree in computers...
back in those days very very few students used to pass around / talk
about computer magazine CDs with the then latest version of slackware
on it, and I was totally clueless about Linux and what it would
become. I only started playing with Linux (slackware) shortly after
leaving Manipal and today I'm running Hardy amd64 on my desktop and
tablet PC and loving it :-)

Perhaps you can start a newsletter (electronic or printed depending on
how many students have access to web and/or your budget limitations)
which has historic information and current news and events in the Free
software world, that could pique interest among the regular joe's at
MIT :-) If you can't print vast numbers, maybe a few copies can be
placed in the library and flyers pasted in the halls asking people to
read it on their next visit to the library, something like that... Or
the easiest way might be to encourage people to get a Google Reader
account, then give them your RSS link (also other Linux and Free
software blogs out there) and you LUG founders/members can post blogs
(news/howtos etc) regularly which will be read by subscribers within
MIT and outside as well!

But continuing on with your regular activities (like installfests,
regular gatherings etc) is good too... you should also make efforts to
engage fresher students (maybe even professors) to become involved in
the LUG organisation so that when the seniors graduate and leave the
LUG can remain alive for future batches to carry on the activities...

Here is the old Fedora news about your installfest I believe:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue118#Manipal.27s_First_Fedora_8_Install_Fest

BTW, how is the Internet connectivity (speed?) in MIT? Do students
have the ability (permission etc) to download and install Free
software on PCs in MIT's labs etc? Are there any subjects with
teachers who encourage to do homework/projects on Linux rather than
"TurboC on Win95" like we used to do back in 1998?