[Leaplist] Christmas Install-fest Joy!

[patrick]

It was a fun install fest this December 1st.  Some folks came from St.
Augustine, others from Polk City, New Smyrna and Melbourne! Thank you
all for traveling to participate!

Fifteen of the 20 donated computers found good homes, and now run
GNU/Linux for members, families, home schoolers.

The remaining 5 will be used by members, for parts, as they were of such
older vintage or had problems, so that they weren't suitable for
children or families to use.

The 7 systems from Seminole County Schools that are Pentium III or
Athlons, have been wiped and now have Edubuntu loaded.  These systems
included 17" CRT monitors, keyboards, mice.

Six donated printers, a large SCSI flatbed scanner, and 24 books were
also distributed.  Some of the books include CDroms with examples,
lessons, programs.  Titles ranged from "GNU C++", "Maximum Linux
Security", and "Lessons in Perl" to "Java Master Reference" and "RHCE",
and many are in hardcover.

Vernon Singleton brought Pizza and Soda pop, so that the fest was able
to continue non-stop through lunch!  Thanks, Vernon!

He also flew some Air Hog helicopters with Leapsters, adding a bit of
fun to the proceedings.

Questions about KDE and Gnome desktop management, transfer of a
/home/user directory over to a second system (in Mepis 6.5) were
answered.  Many of us learned new techniques and skills in the many
other areas of computing with wifi, lan/wan, networking.

One member will be setting up a Linux Packet Radio server with an older
computer.

These re-used systems will live on to serve, thanks to GNU/Linux and the
many happy users who attended today.

Many of us proceeded to Tijuana Flats for dinner at 6 PM.

Thanks to everyone who contributes to the event, and hope all can again
attend in January, 2008!

Merry Christmas to all!

Patrick Berry