[nzlug] HBCLUG GNU/Linux Initiative - initial success!

[Toby Collett]

Simon Bridge wrote:
> Some people thinking along similar lines may find this interesting...
>
> Under the auspicies of HBCLUG I am presenting  night-school course
> called
> "Open Source Computing (Free Software Techniques for Normal People)"
> at Orewa College through their Community Education programme.
>
> The course is slated for 4 weeks each term, covering core concepts in IT
> from a FOSS perspective. It is targeted at people on a low or fixed
> income.
>
> I convinced the college to allow me to run an introductionary seminar,
> free of charge, last Thursday, and followed this with an installfest on
> Saturday.
>
> I advertised 1 week ahead of time with posters in the smaller IT shops
> around the place, as well as DSE Orewa and Albany. I also stuck a card
> up on the New World notice board :)
>
> Six people booked the seminar in advance, with two of them committing to
> the course. Nine people showed up to the seminar itself which turned
> lively and went well into overtime.
>
> Of the advertising, it was the supermarket board that drew the most
> people!
>
> At the installfest, I offered Ubuntu 7.10 and openSUSE 10.3. Seven
> people showed - despite the weather. Installed Ubuntu to four machines
> (3x pIII and one custom quad-core). Another custom computer refused to
> deliver the POST, so nothing could be done there.
>
> Everyone present expressed enthusiasm about the course - we'll see.
>
> One of the students turns out to be a professional programmer. His
> company sells software rather than related things backed by software -
> which leads to discussions about different tools and licenses. Also
> about how Vista is doing quite well these days thank you... I don't know
> what he's doing on this course though.
>
> I'm going to chalk these first two events up as successes.
>
> Could use some pointers vis:
>
> * I don't know enough about Vista to talk abouts possible suspicious
> points - I concentrated on lock-in and licensing. (a la badvista.org)
>
> * C# was suggested as good for a beginner programmer over Java or C/C
> ++ ... this seems to be one of those "vi-vs-emacs" debates, but doesn't
> C# tie you to the .net framework? How careful do you have to be to end
> up with FOSS C# code?
>
> I suggested Java or Python for the kinds of things I learned in BASIC
> and Pascal. But I've used neither (of the former). I also pointed out
> that people who think they want to "dabble" in programming under linux
> usually end up trying much more than the same person would attempt in a
> closed environment... so lets provide the tools huh?
>
> There are more experienced folk about - what's good for someone who just
> wants to potter around?
>
>   
Python absolutely, interpreted languages are great because you get 
immediate gratification. Python also has quick and easy system libraries 
that let you actually make stuff happen on the machine (if they are 
wanting to hack up some automation scripts) and relatively easy UI with 
things like pyGtk.

But just my 2 cents, after all I code in C++ by choice, and really it 
comes down to a mix of personal preference and the right tool for the 
job in the long term.
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