Ok! The Linux Install Party is done!
I am declaring it a success!
So we only had one week to prepare for this and notify folks in town about it.
Last week we:
- Reserved a room at the local library
- Created the website (just a digital flyer site)
- Printed out release forms
- Made a handful of install USB ISOs with Linux Mint on it
- Made a post on the town's subreddit, a couple local discord channels, and told people to tell others
Not a lot of advertising at all.
But!
We had:
- 7 volunteers show up
- 5 groups of people who got Linux installed on their laptops (including one family: a mom and dad who were updating an old laptop for their 8 year old to use)
- And a good handful of people who stopped by to see what it was about, ask questions, and try out our demo laptops running Linux
All installs went chill. We even popped open one laptop to try and repair it (the keyboard and touch pad were borked. It turned out to be a hardware issue. We determined that an external keyboard and mouse were the quickest and cheapest fix. the laptop itself and linux install worked great)
When we werent installing things, we were hanging out, discussing linux and various open source projects and town groups and events and getting to know each other and generally just having a great time. I met new people from town and had some wonderful conversations. No masking, just being myself.
Folks really wanted this to happen again. We even had a librarian come in and ask when we were doing it again so they could bring their laptop to get Linux installed! Some of the volunteers were from the local college and said they had a great time and want to do these events at college and in town again.
We're shooting for next February (in conjunction with a repair cafe) and will try and hold it every month thereafter. Once its a regular monthly event and word of mouth and proper advertisement and posting flyers up in cafes etc, more people will show up and it will grow!
We also think we can make it an official library event (and not just a community event using library space). Once that happens it gets into the town events notification and really attracts folks!
That was awesome.
#solarPunk #mutualAid #FOSS #Linux #LinuxInstallParty #endOf10