Moving forward on our plans for the Idaho Linux/OSS Day on Saturday Nov, 20th, 2010, we met in the Idaho Linux Users IRC Meetup on August 25th. Represented was both Boise and Eastern Idaho. We went over the current plans for three sessions consisting of an opening session on "Why Linux" in educating potential Linux users as to why they would want to use Linux over some other operating system; the session would focus on ease of use, the "free" quality software that is available in Linux, and compatibility with Microsoft applications. The second session would have an Application focus with short but powerful demonstrations OpenOffice, Firefox, Photo Management, Thunderbird/Email, and media applications with a very non-technical approach be taken, even avoiding terms like "chat" in a world of users that think "instant messaging." The third session would focus on both Ubuntu 10.10 and Linux Mint 9 followed by an installation demo and and install fest for those interested. All sessions would provide interactive question and answer time. Expanding on the session content, we might have two concurrent tracks or sessions in the first hour, one for general desktop users and a second for business users. And given the advances in gaming on Linux, a gaming track or session might parallel the application session.

We discussed how many CD's we might want to burn for the occasions at each location and that we would wait until early November so that we would have the release versions of Ubuntu 10.10 and Linux Mint 10(?), provided they have been released at that time. It was thought that something like 30 CD's might be appropriate for the Boise Location but left open. Possible locations were discussed and the need for volunteers. On Eastern side of the state, it was felt by the facilitator there, that he could guarantee at least 6 volunteers to staff the event and had some possible locations in Idaho Falls that he would be checking into; He has a contact up in the panhandle that he hopes to have join us for the September IRC meetup on the 23rd.

Our next Idaho Linux Users IRC Meetup will be on September 23rd at 7 PM on Freenode.net in #idaho-linux-users. This meeting is critical to the success of the Nov. 20th Idaho Linux/OSS Day as we need to make sure that we volunteers and potential meeting locations defined.