Ubuntu Live! and TV appearance

Yesterday was Ubuntu Live! (Ubuntu 8.10 release party) here in Copenhagen and it was great! The talks went according to schedule and we had an entire auditorium at the CBS dedicated to install help all through the day. I didn’t personally take any pictures, but I’m sure others will post snaps of the event at some point.

Of course a big thanks goes to the volunteers, the speakers and everyone else for showing up and participating with such a great spirit, making the day as great as it was.

Among others, Leif Lodahl, was at the event giving a talk about the new OpenOffice.org 3. Leif also had a key role in the tv program ‘Magasinet Penge‘ (a consumer / economy program by DR) for their program about Open Source Software. The program aired last week.
The concept of the program was a typical Danish family of 4 (mother, father and two kids) gets 3 new pc’s with Open Source Software installed. Will they be able to use their new computers, or will they cave in and go back to their Microsoft based computers? Of course they made it, and the family is now switching to Ubuntu for good. Hopefully they will inspire other families around the country to do the same. People from the Danish Loco Team were also involved in the program. Ubuntu had been installed to the computers by members of the team, and Martin and myself made a short (and silent) appearance in the program, handing over the pc’s to the family.
The effect of having Ubuntu mentioned on national television have been quite clear, as the number of users of our forum has increased dramatically.

15 minutes of fame!

Onsdag d. 29 oktober kl. 21.25 (det er i morgen) sender Magasinet Penge en udsendelse om en familie der har fået skiftet alle deres Windows computere ud med computere med Ubuntu.

Vi køber private computere for mere end tre milliarder kroner om året, og mange af de penge betaler vi faktisk for programmer. Men måske er der penge at spare ved i stedet at bruge gratis software.
Magasinet Penge tjekker, om de gratis glæder også giver glade brugere.
Vært: Dorte Fals

Efter 17 dage gøres status i programmet. Min medvirken har været begrænset til installation af maskinerne før programmet og lidt praktisk ude hos familie. Hvis jeg er med i nogle klip står jeg sikkert tavs i baggrunden sammen med Martin eller roder med nogle ledninger i det ene børneværelse.

Manden der taler vores sag er Morten Kjærsgaard fra OSL. Jeg var som sagt kun med til at bringe computerne ind i familiens hus, så jeg ved meget lidt om det endelige udfald, men glæder mig meget til at se programmet.

Jeg håber selvfølgelig også at denne tv eksponering vil give ekstra opmærksomhed til Ubuntu Live! nu på lørdag og Open Source bevægelsen i Danmark generelt.

Martin har skrevet lidt mere om detaljerne og vores bidrag her