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 -- loco-contacts mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/loco-contacts
