Its the little things that count.

The Sussex Linux User group attended the last British Computer Fair in Worthing for this year with a excellent turn out from the group at the show. Accompanying us was Neil Simmons from Oxford who volunteered some time and energy to help at the stand. This was Neils first time to and i am sure he will be blogging about this himself. In the meanwhile A little peak behind the scenes is in order I feel.
Since Steve and I first discussed how we could increase awareness of the Linux User Groups there have been few things that have changed and a few things that have not. What has changed is the software choices we hand out, the materials available to us and the demonstration equipment. What has not changed is the usual last minute dash to burn fresh copies of software and to make sure the demonstration kit is operational, as can be seen below.

The event was typically busy in the morning and this tailed off towards the end of the day. The usual variety of visitors to the table whose attitudes ranged from treating us like lepers to genuine interest and enthusiasm. We usually hand out either Knoppix or Ubuntu CDs. On the basis that we encourage either returning visitors to consider putting Ubunutu on the desktop and just use Knoppix for seeing all the applications available. We are planning though on moving to Kubuntu as the official release of Fiesty when it appears since all the extras planned for the release make it a good candidate for demonstrating OSS software. An interesting last minute sale of the CDs was a chap who walked up to the stand and said. “Do you have the latest Ubuntu release ?” and it is moments like that which make the day worth while. I am guessing though that there are plenty of hidden Linux enthusiasts who have become interested or are already working with Linux and yet are unaware of a local groups who already established. The reason for establishing the regular attendance at Worthing British Computer Fairs was to ensure that we stick in the mind and build awareness of Linux and Linux User Groups. Steve Dobson and I feel these events are a small and vital part of growing the awareness of Free and Open Source software in the hobbyist public minds and its a reason to keep up the enthusiasm for showing up and being at the fairs. Thanks to Steve Dobson, Colin Tuckley, Neil Simmons, Richie Jarvis, Gareth Ablett , Dominic and others whose attendance and help made the day. Special thanks to Richie and Gareth for providing the photos available on my associated Flickr SiteThanks for reading