Event Statistics :
- Registered Participants : 40
- Unregistered Participants : 15-20
- Support Team of CoFSUG : 6
- Breakup of Installations (Specialization-wise):
Computers/IT – 21
Instrumentation – 7
Mechanical – 1
Production -1
Electrical – 1
Not Indicated – 9
- Fedora to Ubuntu ratio = 3:1 (approx)
Event Summary :
- A local server was setup for the event from which users could download disk images/Fedora Installation guide for installation. It also listed various FAQs and commands to be understood post-installation. Shravan started off with a basic introduction of Linux to set the mood.
- There was approximately a 2 to 1 ratio of Desktop to laptop users. To give an actual feel of a live run and installation, A Fedora 13 Live VM installation was done for desktop users using Virtual Box. Laptop users had a choice of directly installing from the media which was provided.
- Upon successful completion of installations and answering queries, (which ate up quite a lot of our time) Shravan ran a small session highlighting basic commands in Linux. I carried on with a post installation Linux-for-your-trade session highlighting major packages available for different kinds of users. See Presentation for reference. I signed off with a how-to-install-packages session.
- Kushal, who had been there approximately from the start, but has been mentioned just now 🙂 brought an interesting closure to the event with a mini session to sensitize the programmers in us by showing some of his interesting projects and basics of Python/Vala. He shared the experiences of his journey with Open Source and Fedora too.
- We had a popular request by users to teach a Live USB creation, but it couldn’t be completed due to shortage of time, However which we’ll cover it on the CoFSUG Google Group as links to guides/websites
Swag/LiveMedia Details :
- A total of 60 Live Media were given away with another 5 which are yet to be collected by some who missed the action.
- All the buttons and key-chains have been distributed among the participants. We ran short of stuff to the end and could not give both of these to everyone. Everyone got stickers however and a few are left with me still.
- We got some T-shirts too. The support guys all flashed Fedora at the event. We’ve decided to keep the remaining 4 T-shirts and utilize them by keeping each as a prize for weekly/bi-weekly coding assignments/contests to be put up on CoFSUG (Its not a bad idea I think!)
Event Pics
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- Kushal, winding up the session…
Tuxology 
There are a couple of things I’d like you to consider and none of them relate to the Fedora/Ubuntu ratio. At an educational institution it is a good idea to have choice and, variety. What is more important is inculcating the concepts of ‘freedom’, ‘collaboration’, ‘participation’, ‘contribution’ and ‘responsibility’.
It would be good to not bask in reflected glory of an installation fest and, work quickly towards building up a process whereby the participants and, the entire student population sees a reason to keep participating in Free and Open Source Software and Content. This could take the form of weekend discussion sessions or, perhaps a monthly session where it is mostly a show-off of cool things done.
By itself an operating system is just a platform. It is how the components are consumed and used to build more things that makes it an interesting exercise. I am happy to see the good response towards installing a FOSS OS. I’d be delighted to know about the participants who took another step forward and decided that they too could participate and add value to any project they choose. How that happens differs from place to place, however, that has to happen and, there has to be constant steps towards making that happen.
In short, I’d like to know how you intend to keep this momentum.