A Picture is worth a thousand words, so two pictures are worth two thousand!

A dozen faithful Ubuntu users gathered at 'Brekky' creek. Our community in Brisbane must be large as we doubled our last release party attendance. A big thank you to everybody who came along: it was a great success. A Maverick Meerkat is lurking in October, we will meet again before then.

Lucid Lynx is here!

To celebrate the latest Ubuntu release and to help speed up installs of the new LTS version, Ubuntu-AU have organised a delivery service to any/all users that do not have ready access to easily download the new release. We understand that a lot of people do not have access to large download limits and high-speed Internet due to the nature of Australian broadband, but we don't think this means anyone should go without Ubuntu.

When:
Saturday 8th of May 2010 2pm

Where:
Breakfast Creek Hotel, 2 Kingsford Smith Drive, Albion
Meet us in the 'Front Plaza' downstairs overlooking the Creek.

What:
Come and celebrate another Ubuntu Release, they roll around so quickly. A beer on a lazy Saturday afternoon at a great location. Come along and say hello to your fellow Ubuntu users in Brisbane.

From James comes some news from a recent gathering of the Ubuntu community in Brisbane.

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The second Brisbane Ubuntu community meeting was held at Gilhooley's Chermside, a typical Irish style pub. As I was the nominated meeting organiser for the event so I got there early, ordered a Kilkenny and sat back to wait for folks to arrive.

I found myself scrutinising everyone that walked past to see if I could identify if the person was an ubuntu user. Not sure what I was thinking; that by using ubuntu we are all somehow develop a power to be able to instantly recognise another member of the tribe. Anyway my powers were on the fritz that day as all I managed to do was get some odd looks from some poor people that where wandering around just trying to find the loo.

Do we ubuntu users need to come up with a secret signal so that we can pick each other out in public?

What a relief when I recognised someone from our previous meeting. Andrew was at the other side of the room near the bar scanning the area for signs of ubuntu geeks. At about the same time a couple of other ubuntu-ers arrived and the combination of swivelling heads and searching looks and my vigorous arm waving must have been enough of a signal to everyone that like minded people were in the area and we were all soon seated and making introductions. The last couple of attendees to arrive seemed to have no trouble finding us. Might have been due to the laptops and other gadgets that had appeared soon after we were all seated.

It was great to see a 50% increase in attendance for this meeting. There were six of us at the meeting! Fingers crossed we can match this growth for our next meeting.

After we completed the introductions everyone started talking about their favourite topic, tech. There were a number of different conversations at the same time, here is a list of the ones I was apart of, or caught snippets of:

- Conroy's filter plans ( what's a gathering without a bit of political chat)
- Calendar synchronisation
- How to secure home environments with tools that work with ubuntu
- Options for ditching itunes for teenagers with iPods.
- Are we brave enough to install Ubuntu on relatives computers?

Packages/products discussed:
- ispconfig
- amsn
- atunes
- xaile
- quickcad
- spyspurt
- GNOME configuration cleanup tool - name?
- randr.com
- Lenovo D10 server

Just before we pulled stumps Paul asked each of us "What is the one thing you would change about Ubuntu if you could?"

Here are the answers everyone gave:

Cary: combined DVD of all *buntu, no need to carry separate CDs for server, desktop, Kubuntu, etc.

Andrew: fix the regressions, esp. laptop power management

David: iPod/Nokia/electronic device support

James: added onto Andrew's point on laptop power management; more intuitive keychain password management when passwords change

Nigel: slick shared calendar across all desktop apps

Paul: compelling web admin interface for directory/file sharing/email/calendar setup; Active Directory & Exchange are killing us in this space

Just before everyone went their own way we agreed our goal should be to all have ubuntu tee shirts so that we at least can find each other and hopefully raise the profile of ubuntu at our next gathering.

We finished the meeting at about 5pm. Three hours goes fast when you having fun. I had a great time geeking out with a group of like minded people and am looking forward to our next gathering. Hopefully we can lure more ubuntu users and people who are curious about ubuntu and open source in general to our next meeting.

The list of attendees and where they travelled from to attend:
Andrew - Mt Gravatt
James - Mcdowall
Nigel - Hendra
Cary - Wamuran (Caboolture)
David - Springfield
Paul - Birkdale
Thanks to Paul for taking notes during the meeting.

Next meeting: Release party for Ubuntu 10.4 - Lucid at Breakfast Creek Hotel. Date TBD - End of April/Early May.

Until then, as my wife likes to says, "Shouldn't you, Ubuntu?".

James

Looking for a way to get involved with Ubuntu even more?

There are plenty of ways to offer your support to Ubuntu. Head on over to the Ubuntu Get Involved page, http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate, and have a browse through the list.

Developing Ubuntu into the great distribution that it is today is only acheived through the help and support of many people. Help out today and see what you can offer back to this community.

Whether you are a developer, a technical person or a non-technical person there are plenty of ways to offer your assistance.

The Brisbane Ubuntu community is having a meetup. Here are the details:

When: Sunday 7th Feb 2010, from 2pm til whenever
Where: Gilhooleys Pub, Chermside Shopping Centre, Chermside.

Feel free to email me directly (james at moonmarsh dot come) if you have any questions.

Hope to see you there!

Andrew G. writes to report on the small (but soon to be much bigger ;) ) release party that was held earlier this month. My apologies for not getting this up until now. - Andrew S.

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The Inaugural Ubuntu Release party in Brisbane was held on the 1st of November 2009.

A big thanks to Cary, James S, James B and my wife who all turned up for some cheer & beer.

I know that that there were a few others that would like to have come but were not available, maybe we will see you next time. A small start, but I know that the Brisbane community is larger than 5. This will be our benchmark.

Between beer and a few snacks we talked about our experiences using Ubuntu and where the Brisbane & Ubuntu-au community could move forward in the promotion & support of the Ubuntu OS. It was decided that we would organise more meetings at various venues so we can meet some more Ubuntu users in Brisbane. If you are in Brisbane and would like to say gidday keep a watch on this website and the ubuntu-au email list for more information.

We are planning our next meeting for sometime in Jan-Feb 2010.

Again thanks to those who could make it as it was a pleasure to meet you and I look forward to meeting other Ubuntu users in Brisbane in the near future.

Cheers, Andrew G.

The mailing list brings word of an Adelaide release party! Details below.

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When: Thu, Oct 29, From 6pm

Where: Belgian Beer Cafe, Adelaide East End.
27-29 Ebenezer Place Adelaide SA 5000

Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&cl...

Notes: Look for Bill the Penguin

Reference: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KarmicReleaseParties#Australia

AndrewG is organising a release party in the Brisbane area to celebrate the up and coming launch of Ubuntu 9.10.

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Lets have a party to celebrate the release of 9.10 Karmic Koala.

Just a casual meeting to say Gidday, and talk about Ubuntu and our Brisbane community.

When: 2pm Sunday 1st November
Where: The Beach House, Garden City Shopping centre (Near the cinemas, look for the ubuntu Logo on our table)
What: An afternoon of cheer with beer.

RSVP: Please email me (a1 @ gandella dot com) and let me know that you can come so I can finalise numbers.