Ubuntu Chicago held their 9.04 release party this afternoon in stormy downtown Chicago. When we arrived it was HOT and HUMID, when we left it was WET and FREEZING. We had quite a few people show up, and the great thing was it was a lot of new faces, not our typical Chicago gangsters who usually show up. We had a lot of fun all while learning about the LoCo team as well as what is new in the 9.04 versions of Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Ubuntu Server.
I want to give a huge thank you to Jim Campbell, Kevin Harriss, and Ilan who is Kevin’s boss. Jim totally set up a really great party and thanks to Kevin and Ilan for hosting us at the Institute of Design. Jim gave 3 presentations, one on the LoCo team and then he briefly covered what was new in both Ubuntu and Xubuntu for 9.04. Kevin, who is typically found with Foresight, but who has replaced his love of freedom with a Macbook, an iPhone, and a Tall non-fat latte, gave a really good overview of what’s new in Ubuntu Server 9.04. Of course I quickly covered Kubuntu 9.04, quickly because my laptop likes to lock up due to a hardware issue that is present in every Linux distro and Windows.
Here are just a few pictures that were taken today for the release party:
Jim pops some bubbly to celebrate the release of Ubuntu Jaunty!
This is what I saw when closing my right eye
This is what I saw when closing my left eye
More pictures can be viewed HERE. I am sure Jim and Nathan will post some pictures as well, so keep an eye out on the planet for more pictures.
Thanks to everyone who showed up and it was really great to finally meet a bunch of new faces, and put faces to those who we have known for a while, but just haven’t gotten to meet.
It seems that some of you with Radeon video cards might be experiencing some X related issues. My KDE developer buddy, David Faure has posted a fix that might not be for the faint of heart, but it seems those who have tried have reported success this far. If you would like more information, head on over and read David’s post on Kubuntu Jaunty not liking Radeon cards. Thanks David for the tip!
As I am sure all of you know this already, but Jaunty has been released! Great job to every one involved. From the users to the developers, great job!
On Saturday, Ubuntu Chicago will be holding a Release Party. The party is going to be a great time and everyone is welcome to join us. Click on that release party link above for more information on the party.
Remember, if you plan on attending, please RSVP. Thanks, and hopefully we will see you there!
Why? To celebrate the latest release of the greatest operating system on earth!
If you plan on attending, please RSVP to let us know. Jim Campbell has also setup a Facebook Event Page for those of you who actually use Facebook.
We have set up an ad-hoc schedule for the event and it is as follows:
2:00 PM to 3:00 PM: Introductions
3:00 PM to 4:00 PM: Lightning Talks
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM: Installs, Help, Q&A, and Partying
Lightning talks will include:
What’s new in Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Server, and others for the Jaunty release
Introduction to the Ubuntu Chicago LoCo Team
Getting involved in Ubuntu (LoCo Team, Documentation, Bugs, Development, and more)
We hope to see a lot of new faces on Saturday and hope to see a lot of the Original Gangsters of Ubuntu Chicago. So come on out and enjoy the fun, see you Saturday!
21:50:47 [ nixternal] I think I have covered everything right?
21:50:59 [ j1mc] nixternal: i still think we should mention pizza.
21:51:19 [ nixternal] you just did
21:51:40 [ j1mc] ah, ok
21:51:40 [ nixternal] follow up my blog post with one that just says "With Pizza"
21:52:44 [ j1mc] can't you add something about pizza to your blog post?
21:52:51 [ nixternal] doing it now
21:52:55 [ j1mc] thanks
I am sure many of you have heard the quote, “Gentoo is for Ricers.” For those of you who are unfamiliar with the word ricer, here is what Urban Dictionary says about it:
A person who makes unecessary modifications to their most often import car (hence the term “rice”) to make it (mostly make it look) faster.
There is also a list of these unecessary modifications and one such modification is:
Lots of after-market company stickers they don’t have parts from, but must be cool
Here in Chicago we see a lot of these, and they are typically slammed with stickers, more than the hideous Red Bull Cars we see driving around here quite a bit.
OK, so I am hitting on the stickers portion of this, because yes you can make all kinds of modifications to Gentoo, but they typically are not useless modifications, so lets just concentrate on the stickers. Well, I had noticed at a recent open source event here in Chicago, the people who were using Gentoo on their laptops didn’t have stickers plastered all over them, and those with Ubuntu did. Odd, you would almost think that Ubuntu was for Ricers.
Just to prove this, here is a query I did on Flickr:
We found 2 results matching gentoo and laptop and stickers.
We found 112 results matching ubuntu and laptop and stickers
What a huge difference!
I meant to blog this back in December after UDS, because I had witnessed more stickers per square inch on many laptops, most notably Jono Bacon’s laptop. People always say I have a lot of stickers on my laptop too, which I do.
Anyways, this useless post was to let everyone know that I have just busted the Gentoo is for Ricers stereotype. Now that this post is finished, I want to see some groovy laptop stickers. Link me to them. I did find one on Flickr with a Notice to Law Enforcement that was totally great, but I can’t find it now.
Some of you might know me as nixternal, but I am a
self-proclaimed geek, programmer, and free software
advocate. I tend to write free software, documentation, and
books. I can currently be found roaming the mean streets of
Chicago, Illinois. Looking for an
open source or Linux consultant?
Like my work or my contributions to the open source community? Feel free to donate.
21:52:44 [ j1mc] can't you add something about pizza to your blog post?
21:52:51 [ nixternal] doing it now
21:52:55 [ j1mc] thanks 
