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The First-Ever Installfest in Egypt
"The atmosphere was just unbelievable; people who had had linux installed realised the LUGgers were overwhelmed and stayed on helping other people with installs, we couldn't burn CDs fast enough, several thousand educational pamphlets were not enough by a wide margin. We were expecting maybe 150 or 200 people throughout the day, but we had already reached that number by 9:45 a.m. (15 minutes before opening!). To the best of our knowledge, the most successful LUG-driven event in the middle-east, certainly the biggest, and one hell of a day that we'll all remember. Note that we are now looking at the possibility of another Installfest during summer at the Bibliotecha Alexandrina and would welcome any extra resources. (A big thanks to MadFarmAnimalz' family who served the volunteers sandwiches carefully wrapped in copies of the GPL preamble and the deCSS code)"
Theres a mirror of the site here
drunk chemists
Anyone else read this (dsc00836)as a triumphant "Nerds Now" after installing Linux?
I've held a couple of small-scale linux "Installfests" in the past, and the availability of CDs (and CD-Rom drives, in some cases) can certainly be an issue.
I found that many computers support Network Booting, which RedHat supports easily. While not every machine supports it, doing net installs on the machines that do frees up CD-ROM drives and CDs for the ones that don't.
We need a worldwide install fest tracked by local lugs... i'd set it up but im too lazy
vi vs emacs
A Linux install-fest and they advertised gorillas?
Free Firefox news reader.
Mirrored on an Internet2 site here: ta-da.
|/usr/games/fortune
Great job getting that many people out guys, thst's amazing. I'm sure you're completely wasted right now but a further description of your marketing campaign and why you think it was so effective would be a great help to LUG's around the world. Was there some cultural aspect that you used to help you out or are Egyptians just dying to get Linux installed?
http://phreakco.us/egypt/
my sig sucks, you dont want to see it....
Computers are great and all for what we use them for, but for them to be able to bring people together in a _social_ setting is pretty damn cool. Sorta throws itself in the face of the usual antisocial computer geek stereotype.
The very best part of installfests is that isntead of just complaining about Microsoft, people actually get out and do something to help provide better options.
reeddavid.com
What exactly did this extremely effective guerilla marketing campaign consist of?
main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
I setup a mirror in germany at: http://www.infodb.de/linux-egypt.manalaa.net/files /big10/
The penguins on the T-shirt in the last photo look especially neat... kudos to the designer!
According to the Linux Counter, Egypt has 2262 registered machines (with 156 registered users), or 2.26 users for every million people that live there. With a really low turnover, and half the people being actually getting linux installed, they could easily have enough people to quadruple the counter stats. Perhaps the organizers should invite people to Register.
With 3 more users, they could pass nepal.
German mirror
The only problem I can think of is verifying that what's on the CD isn't malicious code. Hmmmmm... That's a tough one. Maybe a better idea would be for Linux users around the world to each donate some money to a nonprofit organization created for the purpose of Linux Installfests. That nonprofit would then have thousands of copies of Linux CDs pressed each day, at a cost of almost nothing per CD. I can see how it would be in the best interest of all Linux distro makers, and all companies that use Linux as part of their strategy (e.g., IBM) to donate a few cents from each CD they sell to this organization. This organization would then routinely ship crates of CDs to LUGs around the world, for the purpose of installing on folks' computers, and giving them the CD as their welcome gift to the Linux community. If a nonprofit can't be started, then why not donate some of those CD duplication units that can make 10 CDs at once, or at least the funds to buy those things...
By making this community grow as much as possible, we will all be doing a great thing. It is likely that companies will produce hardware drivers, application software, and other products for Linux. It is likely that by experimenting with Linux, a lot of people will become a lot smarter about computers, and the ratios of 1337 users to the idiot users (that Microsoft helped create with its talking paperclips) will be more favorable.
Finally, some other folks mentioned network boots. Yes, I think this is a good idea. But still give folks a CD so they can reinstall if they hose their system.
How long before Bill Gates asks Rumsfeld to bomb-out the whole area???
It would be nice to see if it could be mirrored*wink*
here in the US.
/b
|f(x)dx = F(b) - F(a)
Perhaps I wasn't the only one that read the headline and thought this was just an update to the Installing Linux on dead badgers article. Next week on Slashdot how to optimize your Linux Mummy Cluster.
http://bylands.dur.ac.uk/~mh/egypt-installfest/ind ex.html
..just a bunch of hieroglyphics?
This installfest proves that it isn't!
So the question is , what did they install ? ,Fedora SuSE ? Something else ?
Gentoo, Debian
Hows the Arabic support in Linux? Last I heard, virtually non-existant.
7 hours to install Linux? Think I'll stick to Windows... :)
... who is Pete ?
chris at darkrock dot co dot uk
http colon slash slash www dot darkrock dot co dot uk
What about after the installfest when all that's left is a pyramid of linux cds? sorry, couldn't resist. :(
Redundant?
I heard the words 'guerilla' and 'middle east' and my curiosity is piqued.
I guess terrorist marketing campaign is a poopooed term.
Set up an iso on an ftp server and install via ftp?
just need boot floppy.
Maybe some participants might be interested in trying FreeBSD?
These people don't look like Linux geeks to me. They are clean and well dressed! :)
Why won't you launch a compression technology startup? Your .sig beats both gzip and bzip2, that's something!
Has anyone read some of the (English language) forum comments? I find it interesting these featured quotes from people such as Ben Franklin. My knowledge of politics is limited to conflicting ideals espoused by various agenda laden news organizations, so I honestly don't know: are there no mideastern/Egyptian icons of Liberty? Or are "American ideals" truly as strong internationally (or at least in Egypt) as american rhetoric would have us believe?
In India, IBM is aggressively displaying ads for Linux, describing it as a little child who's growing. He helps everyone, saves everyone lots of resources. Brilliant idea, very well executed.
I just can't see why we won't find more linux acceptance at global level
You're going to have to pull it out of cvs , I haven't bothered doing any official releases or anything yet , its just a bunch of php scripts.
It lets you gather the number of each distro , type of CPU , harware type (desktop , laptop, etc) that people want linux installed and configured for, as well as the number of people turning up to help who can handle it. And you get a nice little graph showing you how many people sign up each day before the event.
There's another installfest project on sourceforge here
The Sawy Cultural Center is new and the management there was really supportive. We at the LUG feel we can do a lot of work with their support, and one way to get them enthusiastic about linux and open source is for them to feel the power of the open source community. We showed them that day how many people we could pull in, and I'm getting their admin to look at their server stats today ( ; hit it hard people).
:)
If you want to help us, e-mail Khaled Mohsen who was our liason there and just tell him that you as a linux user and/or open source proponent would like to thank him for helping out the Egyptian Linux Users' Group, and make sure to extend the thanks to Mr. Mohamed Al Sawy too through Khaled.
Show me the power of slashdot
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
that Linux is hard to install? People need to go te a InstallFest to get it done? They are overwhelmed by the amount of people showing up! This is not good...
We were overwhwelmed by the amount of people interested to get the CD's to install it by themselves. We were surprised by the amount of people helping others installing after they got linux installed over their own PC's. We were happy to see this spirit spreading among people after understanding the concepts of free software.
Turnout was absolutely incredible; the hall was maxed out at something between 500 and 1,000 persons for 7 solid hours
seems that not only the web site, but the event itselft was slashdotted.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Interesting comment, as someone whose actually studied the shariah (though of course not gone nearly as deep as one may) and for whom Islamic studies was my mainstay before entering the IT world (I still consider it the most important thing out there, and paramount to my life, though I have to confess to dedicating an obscene amount of time to my current passion, after all it is my living). I myself have wondered about how close GPL-like thought can come into with traditional Islamic iqtisadi (roughly economic) thought. As you may konw many of the scholars (with some prominent exceptions) have rejected the concept of intellectual property, coupled with the fact that hoarding is considered a heinous sin. The idea of distributing source for the public benifit certainly seems in tune with the general Islamic ethos, though I don't know if I'd say that cancels out all closed models of software development as well (Allahu 'alam). I have given thought to the notion that Linux and other free systems is just what the Muslim nations could use right now to help bring back some of the intellectual heritage and scientific innovation that had been a hallmark in former times (not that it's dead by any means, just looks at Safawid and post Safawid metaphysics in Iran to disprove the idea that Islamic philosophy died with Ibn Rushd.) Certainly a system that Muslims can actively contribute to and make their own would be much better than just sending in checks to a closed business located in Redmond. wa salaam 'ala 'l-muhtadeen...
In India... middle class parents love brilliant children and spoil them rotten even into adulthood so the linux campaign works very well there.
However in arab muslim cultures parents want children to be dutiful and respect their elders, so the idea of some uberchild prodigy leaves them cold.
...in February I distinctly noticed a lot of Tux images on billboards. There were a lot of computer companies advertising Linux services where I was staying around the Ma'adi area. Don't remember seeing a Microsoft ad, though the internet cafes all seemed to run XP. Perhaps this should be where LUGgers target their actions?
Bob
Listen to my latest album here
Would this be the Egyptian god that new users pray to?
The strong do what they can, while the weak suffer what they must.
Islamic culture encourages spread of knowledge specialy among the young generation. I wonder how you got the idea that this contradicts with the fact of children being dutiful and respect their elders.
So then why are there over 200 million arabs on this planet, yet they only translate 330 foreign books each year into arabic? That is less than 1/5th of what is translated in Greece annually from foreign languages to Greek. There are only 10 million people in Greece. Clearly there is something wrong in the house of Islam.
People give Greeks alot of shit about not being like their ancestors, but if the rest of the world was muslim except for Greece, the Greeks would be just like their ancestors; light years ahead of their neighbors.
That's a lot! When I spent 2 weeks in Egypt (admitedly in '88) I averaged $6 US per day. That included hotels, train fares, food, tourist sites, water, 2 day trip on a felucca, souveniers, baksheesh, you name it. NYC last November (a city of around the same size) wasn't nearly so cheap.
I as a Muslim confess that it is my fault as well as other Muslims' fault, it's not to blame on Islam or Islamic culture itself, but it's the wrong implementation or even the absence of implementation of Islamic ideals that led us to this point. At one day in history culture was spread thoughout the world by Islam and Muslims.
The problem is not misrepresenting the ideals of the Koran, but it is about wasting time every second on the Koran.
Depends on how you spend these seconds, it's exactly like wasting time reading source code, while you could spend that same time compiling that code, told you, it's a matter of implementation.
Ok, you have fun being a psuedo intellectual, but for others there is reality to deal with.
I have read the Koran and Bukhari. There are two phases of Mohammed's life. The first is relatively peaceful and if this was the only phase Islam would be like other religions. The second phase he gets more power and uses it to raid, plunder and wage war.
Unless you want to be a caravan bandit you are wasting your time overly contemplating the Koran.
"The second phase he gets more power and uses it to raid, plunder and wage war" Can you please give me examples of cases of raid, plundering and wagging war during prophet Mohamed's life. And why do you post anonymously if you have something to say? I think we're getting off-topic here, so we'd rather PM it if you want
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Party on, Wayne.
Guys, The rest of the 101 photos are here:o s.sh?ph otos/festival
;-)
1 0/
http://home.manalaa.net/cgi-bin/share_phot
Ok, If the URL gets slashdotted
here is another one:
www.foolab.org/fest
The album was still under construction, you'll be impressed with the results
http://linux-egypt.manalaa.net/files/big
More info @
festival.linux-egypt.org
Which is funny considering that all the renaissance translations of the works of Aristotle, Plato, and the great greek writers we have come from arabic translations.
The modern muslim world is quite different from the muslim world of 700 years ago.
notepad with WINE emulation.
*Ducks*
Call me an insensitive clod, but it's always the same with you geeks: it's great to read, but nobody explains what you are reading about.
Just like when you type "man".
It's great to read, but nobody explains how to do it (like with a few samples or examples).
>man installfest
No man pages found for "installfest" you insensitive clod
The basic problem can be seen in numbers like these:
Microsoft Sells 210 Million Copies of Windows XP. That is 10 million copies a month, up from 9 million a month last July, and the vast majority of the sales new OEM installs.
Score: -1 (Darkly True)
not the first installfest in the arab world
just the first one in Egypt
I see no one gets sarcasm... LOL!!!
Ok, so then please tell me what arab country had an installfest before this Egyptian one?
Sadly, Egypt is seen as the leader and one of the more advanced countries in the arab world. The arab world is a very sad world to be a part of.
Hey Crusader, did you know that the Arabs were fighting to destroy the Roman Emperor?
... "How was it that in the ninth century this massive Hellenic infusion into the formation of Islamic civilization came about? The answer lies in the observation that a portion of Byzantine civilization had survived the Islamic conquests and had long been resident in the lands of the caliphate, even before the conquests. Here we are speaking of what has been termed Syrian Hellenism. The Syriac-speaking Christians, both Monophysites and Nestorians, had long ago adopted the curriculum of the late Greek schools of Alexandria, so that the study of Greek, Aristotle, Plato, Porphyry, Homer, and other authors remained standard in many of the schools in the very lands of the caliphate. Medicine had long been a monopoly of the Syriac Christians, and it was they who played the major role in the translation of the Greek texts, often via Syriac, into Arabic." ...
The term Byzantine Empire was coined by Hieronymus Wolf,a German whose Germanic ancestors earlier helped destroy the Roman tradition in the West, so it is only fitting that a historian such as him would dilute the latter half of Roman history for the minds of Westerners. The Arabs did the same in the East along with the Ottoman Turks. Until the fall of its capital Constantinople in 1453 the Roman Empire on its had "Empire of the Romans" printed on it in Greek letters(basileia ton Rhomaion) and the people called themselves as Romans. Infact up until the Greek revolution in 1821 hardly any Greek considered himself as a Hellene instead they called themselves Rhomaion or Romans.
I have seen pictures of "Byzantine" coins saying on them "basileia ton Rhomaion" in Greek and as a modern Greek it was no problem for me to understand what that meant. I do not need some stupid descendants of Crusaders to tell me about the Arabs suppossedly preserved the Greco Roman tradition, while waging jihad against the best example of the of this tradition the incorrectly termed Byzantine Empire for centuries.
Let us see what the Greek American historian Speros Vryonis has to say about this subject:
Byzantine Civilization, a World Civilization
Same old story, the Islamic golden history involves taking crediting for using jihad to inherit from pre-existing and more sophisticated cultures.
they must cover their body from ankles to neck and wrists Men need only to cover from knees to waist
Next time, use the helpful tags.