Now that I’ve had a chance to rejoin the living after what has been my busiest day since my daughter’s birth (and that, in and of itself, was a pretty busy day, not to mention slightly more significant than Sunday), I’d like to first apologize for not being able to give folks an update during the first Lindependence event — either on IRC nor on this blog — and secondly offer a couple (a few, or maybe several) observations about the day.
This project has left the station and is on the move.
First things first: The first event was a success, and a telling sign about the way the day would go started before the event opened. There were people waiting when Ken Starks, Grant Bowman (who represented Ubuntu), 10-year-old Linux chick Mirano Cafiero (daughter of yours truly) and I made it over to Taylor Hall at Felton Presbyterian Church, with Christian Einfeldt following us with a running video camera. That was about 2:15 — 45 minutes before the event was to start.
Another telling sign of the event’s eventual success had to do with the first person who asked for assistance. Takash Yogi, who brought his laptop, didn’t want a Live CD to take home, and didn’t want to dual boot with Windows. Takashi wanted to do a full install, and he went home with Ubuntu on his laptop.
People get ready, there’s a train a-comin’
You don’t need no baggage, you just get on board
The gurus and greybeards were at the ready and were incredibly helpful. The greybeards and gurus brought about a century of GNU/Linux and FOSS experience into the hall, and they were incredibly helpful to those whose Linux experience could only be measured in minutes and hours.
Academia was well represented: Jim Griffin, the best of a fine group of instructors at Cabrillo College, was there, as well as OpenOffice.org’s David Eisenberg, from Evergreen Valley College in San Jose. David not only helped with OOo, but also did double duty, helping out with some Linux installs on the side (as well as bringing the treats).
Youth was served as well. Guru Kai Tamkun, who turns 12 on Friday, coded in Perl when not demonstrating Mandriva, his distro of choice. Brothers Aric and Adam Rufle, who came to Felton with their father Steve Rufle, also pitched in, both digitally as well as impromptu roadies. Mirano Cafiero made her own video of the event, and gave the tape to Christian to put on the Digital Tipping Point.
Speaking of Steve Rufle (to whom I have to apologize for introducing him all weekend as “Steve Ruffle” when his surname is actually pronounced “roo-fle”), the FOSS movement is a better place thanks to his artesian depth of advocacy, and while he had brought his Open Animals up from Phoenix, he was pressed into service as a “greybeard” helping those who had questions or who were doing installs.
People get ready, there’s a train to Jordan
Picking up passengers coast to coast
The nuts and bolts: We didn’t take a head count. We probably should have, but we were all working on getting people into the world we already know, so we bypassed that minor detail. But from our estimation, we probably had 100 people come in between 3 and 7 p.m., most of them coming early in the event. It may have been little more, possibly a little less, but somewhere in that area.
The amazing part was the number of people who went home with machines running GNU/Linux and GNU/Linux only. A sea of Live CDs went out the door as well, however it was those who came and had enough of Windows that awed most of us.
All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin’
You don’t need no ticket . . .
There’s another event tomorrow. One is scheduled for July 26 in the afternoon, before the town’s big celebration they’re holding after buying their waterworks, and the other may be earlier in the week, probably Tuesday or Wednesday. As always, more will follow.
