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Ask the Egyptian Installfest Organizers
The Linux-Egypt group recently held an amazingly successful installfest. This event was a milestone both for Linux installfests in general (was it the largest one ever held?) and for Linux in the Arabic world. Alaa Abd El Fatah, one of the organizers, has offered to answer your questions with help from other Linux-Egypt members. We'll post their answers to 10 or 12 of the highest-moderated questions as soon as we get them back.
Do egyptians install in English or is it possible in Arabic?
What were some of the reasons that people gave for trying/switching to linux? Was it as simple as better language support or saving money? Or were there political motives as well, such as a resistance toward Microsoft because of its nation of origin?
I am wondering what the competition is for an operating system in the arab world. Is windows as big as it is here? Or do people use other operating systems (BSD, OSX, Solaris, Linux) most of the time?
Also, what is the most widely used distro in that part of the world?
one world | many people
Have the recent military actions taken by Western countries in the Islamic world affected attitudes towards software, bearing in mind the US-centric nature (Microsoft, Intel, Adobe) of commercial, closed-source software?
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
How ingrained is technology/computing (including OSS) into popular culture in Egypt? In North America it is everpresent and accepted as part of the culture, as it were, but I seldom see the same side of other societies. Are geek topics common 'water-cooler' discussions?
What were some of the major obstacles that you expierence while organizing and during installfest?
Are there any technical restrictions in current Arabic language support in Linux? Also, how big role do language support and translations play in adoption of Linux there? I suppose there are quite many people who don't speak English at all.
When choosing to use Linux, one makes a conscious decision to join together with other people from around the world in a salute to freedom. Egyptians join with Finns, Americans, Asians, South Americans, and Europeans when they install Linux. It is both very humbling and yet uplifting to know that the software you are using is a result of international cooperation.
However, the history of the world, and especially North Africa/Middle East is full of wars and territorial animosities. Without trying to peg you as one who would necessarily hold these beliefs, but there are many in Egypt who would like nothing more than to have little to do with America and its allies. Do you think Linux has a calming effect on such feelings? Does it provide a means of exposing those who would not normally have exposure to such things a side of America and its allies that is not simply warmongering and anti-Egyptian?
I'm not asking if Linux is going to come with a worldpeace.pl script or anything. I'm just curious as to the ability of Linux to provide a favorable view of Western society to your Egyptian Linux installbase.
I have been pwned because my
Do you feel events such as InstallFest have contributed positively to the growing awareness of computer technology in non-western countries?
In terms of compatibility, were there any common stumbling points of getting hardware to play nice?
In other words, how much hardware commonly available on the Egyptian market is unsupported by Linux?
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
What is the most popular distro in Egypt?
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and if you do; has anyone tried to make any efforts towards getting GNU/Linux, or even some Open Source Software applications (such as abiword) to be used?
I've been recently to Egipt and couldn't help noticing the large number of shops that offer net access for a small (European standards) fee. Do these shops usually run Linux or Windows?
I also know the government has it's troubles raising money to put computers in your administrative structure. Is the government setting up Windows (paying the required licences) or Linux?
I would like to congratulate you on your initiative, as it may contribute to reduce the electronic divide.
I know that Arabic has quite a number of individual characters (>255 ;-), and goes right to left. How easy was it to adapt Linux to use Arabic?
Insert
I didn't look through all the installfest photos, but I didn't see a lot of women there. Okay, so hanging out with a lot of geeks configuring network services isn't most chicks idea of a hot date. But, nevertheless, how many females are involved with the open source crowd, and in the IT industry in general, in Egypt?
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
How friendly are you to those installing linux? How friendly are the installees towards each other and the outside world?
I ask, because most americans think its best to call people 'newbies' and shout 'RTFM' if they ever have a question.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Parent has a very good question actually, even if they don't directly ask it. Hoes does the religion make-up of the install-fest compare to the religion make-up of Egypt? Are there fewer or more of any specific religion that attend? Was religion even present? What about nationalities? Did you find that natives or non-natives to Egypt were more likely to attend in comparison to the # of natives/vs non-natives in the general population?
I can count to 1023 on my hands. Ask me about #132.
What were the most common misunderstandings among new or potential Linux users? Did you provide a place for newbie questions and answers?
My office has been taken over by iPod people.
I am from the UK and find that pushing the idea of thin client computing using LTSP difficult to get across. I suspect one reason may be the fact that cost over here may not be a big issue and people still don't mind spending ridiculous money on computers. What is the LTSP climate like in Egypt and are there lots of Internet Cafe's/Community centres that use/or would show interest in using LTSP to set up inexpensive internet access like in Brazil or other countries?
where can i get a tshirt with that kickass pyramid logo? :)
How many installations were done on laptops, notebooks and PDAs? Are there Linux installation reports available for laptops, notebooks and PDAs in Arabic? Actually I would like to link to them from the TuxMobil - Linux on Mobile Computers database.
As often as I see people go through upgrade cycles, and especially in the wake of the news saying that Microsoft was suggesting using machine with 2 gigabytes of RAM, 1 terabyte of disk space, 6 ghz in speed, 3x faster video cards, etc., I have to wonder how Egypt is coping? What kind of computers were you installing linux on? And believe me, I've installed linux on things that should never of had linux on them! =)
Or more to the point, what is the first thing users want to do after the system is installed and running?
Have you Meta Moderated t
Can you give us some idea of the state of computing in your country? For example, are computers common in general home use, are middle-class types able to afford them, and so forth. I'm also curious about how the heat and sand are handled - are they problems?
How much of an egyptian income takes buying a computer? What is the computer/population ratio? How is the average hardware? PIII? PIV?
Conectiva is the biggest linux player in Brazil and it also has some recognition around the world - you probably remember Marcelo Tosatti worked there, right?
Well, being a Brazilian company and having a heavily localized distro has helped them get a strong hold in the market here, but it works twofold, as it also helped spread linux among people and business that would not try a non-localized distro.
Any company in Egypt pursuing this marked opportunity currently? Or you think it would not work there (and if so, why?)
Thanks!
Recently Microsoft has been sending out its dogs to close down businesses and educational facilities that are running unlicensed versions of Windows, in the internet cafes especially. When I was there in 2002 the telecom was state owned and charged per minute for phone lines. Not only that, but phone lines would often drop connections throughout most locations in Cairo. Many computer users prefer to net surf from these cafes due to faster access and more reliable connections. I can imagine many of them chose Linux at home for the consistency; and the fear that M$ might start checking homes might have an influence.
Question: My dad, who still lives in Cairo, was approached by a couple "OSS advocates" who were trying to pan off someone elses work and make a profit. Is this widespread or just an isolated occurence?
I'm interested in: what's the best distro with regards to Arabic support? I've been studying Arabic for a year or two now and I enjoy tinkering around with Arabic on Linux, but sometime's it's so hard to get things to work! (I recently tagged some of my Arabic-language mp3s with Arabic Unicode in the id3 tags, and so far the only player I've found that will display the Arabic tags is the Beep Media Player (gtk2 fork of xmms).
Dlugar
Computer Go: Writing Software to Play the Ancient Game of Go
Being from an underdeveloped country myself, I find that due to the paucity of information, the first distro to get a foot in the door (Redhat) quickly acquires a monopoly. Have you observed the same thing?
A lot of work with Arabic in OSS relates to the complex RTL (Right to Left) layout of the language. Most development in this area was by Arab and Israely developers. Do you find yourself working together with Israely developers to reach the common goal of proper RTL support in Linux and OSS in general? Are there political problems working with Israeli developers?
Thanks
Although I like the idea of installfests, I usually get a shiver down my spine when I hear about them.
Pictures of naive users who brings their Windows PCs in to have everything on their harddrives wiped out and replaced with a system that will solve all their problems leaps to my mind.
Without some basic training on how to use a Linux system, pointers to good documentation and reasonable expectations, they will likely just get a frustrating experience and get disgruntled, telling everybody else what a terrible system Linux is and have somebody reinstall Windows.
What measures did you take to avoid this situation on your installfests and do you have any plans on how to follow up on the installfest with some more events that can help these newbie users on their way? Also, do you have any recommendations for other LUGs arranging installfests?
Any problems encountered with so many boxes & people in one hall in a climate I guess will be kind of toasty?
I had enough problems last summer with 2 pc's in a room!
Is anyone in Egypt using Linux mainly for Arbaic stuff? Which distro do they use.
...etc.)
I mean, programmers and techies will be fiddling with English apps most of the time, and only use arabic for the odd letter, or web site. What I mean is someone who does most of his work in Arabic (document editing, browsing, spreadsheets,
I have tried Red Hat some time back (I think 7.2?) and Konquerer would work well displaying Arabic web pages correctly, but no other apps would work well.
My current Mandrake 9.1 is a pain to setup Arabic to work (in KDE control panel), and even then, it does not work in all apps.
Knoppix from Sept 2003 is far far better. You can switch to arabic by clicking the little flag icon on the bottom right of the screen, and many apps (cant remember which, probably Open Office?) can accept Arabic letters.
Any one used Mandrake 10 CE or Final with Arabic? How is it?
Can the non-CD distros emulate Knoppix in this regard?
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
Internationally speaking, what about distros that contain software that's illegal to have like encryption in China or deCSS in the US? Do you suggest rolling your own distro from say debian or gentoo?
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST