Ubuntu Wiki

Who We Are

We are the Ubuntu South Africa LoCo, and we have been an approved LoCo since July 2005.

We represented the Sub-Saharan region of Africa since 2005 and recently (Around March 2016) started an initiative to unite all of the active Ubuntu Local Communities in Africa and bring them together to assist each other in different issues and activities. And so far only 3 of the 18 countries locos still are outstanding.

We have smaller auxiliary groups in Cape Town (South-West coast), Durban (East coast), and Johannesburg/Pretoria (Inland).

This document is a team effort.

Key Details

• Date - 19 December 2016 - LoCoCouncil/Agenda

• Team Contact - Maia Grotepass

• Membership - 85 as of December 2016

• Launchpad Team - https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-za

• Website - http://ubuntu-za.org/

• Mailing List - ubuntu-za on lists.ubuntu.com

• IRC - #ubuntu-za on freenode

• Google Plus - https://plus.google.com/u/0/+Ubuntu-zaOrg/posts

• Ubuntu Members - tumbleweed, maiatoday, drubin, superfly, Kilos

Roadmap

Immediate future

• Continue to have events time allowing.
• Continue to distribute media with Ubuntu on for installation,
• Continue to provide support on the mailing list and in IRC

Long term

• Involve more people so that we have a better presence in more areas in South Africa and that we increase the diversity of our Ubuntu community.

Experience

• Global Jams
• Release parties
  • 14.04 Randburg

    • https://lists.canonical.com/archives/ubuntu-za/2014-April/011132.html

    • https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-za/attachments/20140426/d78f5eec/attachment-0001.jpg

    • http://loco.ubuntu.com/events/ubuntu-za/2781-ubuntu-trusty-release-party-in-randburg/

• Software Freedom day

  • University of KwaZulu-Natal

    • http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2014/SouthAfrica/Pretoria/SFD (server seems down):

    • https://plus.google.com/events/c6vcflr0ucsepo8576pf08nlek0

    • There was a bit of an ubuntu community presence but no ubuntu specific talk though.
• Conferences

  • DebConf16

    • Annual Debian conference

    • superfly, tumbleweed and paddatrapper were on the organisation team.

    • andrewlsd and kmf helped out with the video team

  • PyConZA 2016
    • Annual Python conference in South Africa

    • No official UbuntuZA presence, but paddatrapper was on the video team, and a large number of the attendees are running Ubuntu

LUG Involvement

To contact and list all LUGS for inclusion.

• Durban Linux User Group: http://durbanlinux.co.za/

• Cape Town Linux User Group: http://clug.org.za/

• Gauteng Linux User Group: http://www.linux.org.za/

An Open Concern: LoCo Activity

We had the above concern as a point in our last reverification meeting and in the last two years active membership of the loco has grown from 73 members to 85 (~15% growth). Some of the initiatives taken to grow membership and promote Ubuntu not only in South Africa but the rest of Africa was the Ubuntu-Africa initiative whereby all active Ubuntu communities come together to assist each other in issues and activities.

More information can be found at http://ubuntu-africa.info/ and on irc channel #ubuntu-africa

As always various platforms are used to assist with technical issues and promotion of Ubuntu.

Testimonials

Please add your voice by writing out a testimonial for us, especially if you are a new Ubuntu user, or had a good recent experience. Sign it with your name, alias, and optionally link it to your Launchpad profile URL if you have one. Many thanks in advance!

nlsthzn - I have had the honour of being an active (more active at some times than others) member of the Ubuntu ZA LoCo for many years and it continues to be a brilliant source of advice and technical assistance to any persons in South Africa looking for assistance with Ubuntu and very often with FOSS in general. You will always find an answer or friendly greeting in either IRC or on the mailing list.

nuvolari - Being part of the Ubuntu-ZA LoCo has always been fun. Our online community is friendly and always willing to help on IRC and the mailing lists. Regional groups also contributed in reaching out to others and developing interest off-line.

Kilos - I have been helped by the Ubuntu-ZA LoCo since 8.10, and have progressed from being a diesel mechanic with a farming background to being able to help newbies with unity and kde on occasion. Also learned lots about using the command line. All those who helped me did so with great patience and understanding as I have been brain damaged in an accident in 1998, and have no short term memory. Also I am on the older side of the scale (63) and get treated with great respect by everyone on #ubuntu-za. Over the years there has been a slow down of activity as many of our members are family people, and, with the struggle to make ends meet their time is limited but even so when anyone has any serious issues time is made to help them out whether it is in the mailing list or on irc. I would also personally like to thank ubuntu-za for supporting me financially in my time of desperate need. https://www.gofundme.com/ReunionRoadblock/ and that includes the rest of the wider community that has helped so generously. Thank you each and everyone.

gremble - Invited to join the people at Ubuntu-ZA LoCo and haven't left. A friendly and intelligent bunch, always ready to help out one another. The mailinglist often contains interesting information and there is no shortage of friendly conversation in the IRC channel.

theblazehen - "I've been active on the #ubuntu-za community for a few years, and really enjoy the friendliness of the community. The people there are all really supportive of new users as well"

DigiGram - A few years ago I was very active and part of the #ubuntu-za community. Sadly life and work got in the way, and even though I was estranged from my community friends, every time I pop back in for a question, anyone and everyone is willing to help and that with a smile on their faces (well, I hope so at least). A few members I knew way back then as the kind that was willing to help, but without the knowledge to do so is still around, but the community has taught itself so well, that those members possess the working knowledge now, and still has that willingness in them to help other members, newcomers and the flybyers that just need a quick fix. Everytime I need something, I rather come to #ubuntu-za to the friendly helpers that I know and like! Long live #ubuntu-za

magespawn - I have been a member of the IRC channel for sometime now and it my goto place when looking for answers regarding anything to do with Linux in general and Ubuntu in particular. I have not been able to attend any of the activities unfortunately, mainly because of being out of the way, but I understand that these are always well received. I am less active on the very busy mailing list where we have a lot of members who are 'list only', I can recommend either way of contacting the Ubuntu-za Community when in difficulty or just looking for extra information.

superfly - I've been with the UbuntuZA gang pretty much since it started. It has an ebb and flow of members, but it's never gotten close to dying. The folks are friendly and helpful, and the community warm. UbuntuZA struggles a bit with activities, due to the large gap between classes and the size of the country (comparatively, South Africa is slightly less than twice the size of the state of Texas). There are very few Linux users in South Africa compared to countries like the USA or the UK. Unfortunately I don't see a solution any time soon, but we do get involved in other FLOSS activities held around South Africa, like Software Freedom Day. In 2016 a number of the UbuntuZA members helped organise DebConf16, the 2016 chapter of Debian's annual international conference. A special mention goes to Kilos for pretty much being the backbone of the community. He'll deny it, but he keeps things going, reminding everyone about our monthly meetings, other events, and always holding the fort in IRC.

I have been using OSS from around 2006 after a nephew told me about Ubuntu - tried other OSS but could not fit with the others so started using Ubuntu and loved it.

zabear1 - I am semi-retired but use Ubuntu for my Real Estate franchise since 2007 and for my guest house business since 2010, running Ubuntu on 4 or 5 PCs. I have absolutely No programming knowledge and do not have time for bother. That is why I love Ubuntu. I recently updated from 12.04 on my own to 1404 LTS - no outside help, and it just worked (perhaps I was just lucky or perhaps Ubuntu just worked :-). I also added a new HP Printer (4 in one) to the system 2 weeks ago and it also just worked out of the box. I am now relocating to Margate with both businesses and hope to find Ubuntu friends there. (added by nlsthzn on behalf of zabear1 via an e-mail request).

Lionthinker - After a friend of mine loaded Natty onto my laptop in 2011 I never looked back. I found out about Floss and eventually stumbled onto the Ubuntu ZA community. Since then they have helped with issues, and so have I to others. We are a small community but in time will grow, especially with events like we had last year with RMS and other events such as the LTS launch party this year.

inetpro - Been a ubuntu-za member since 2006 and a fulltime (K)Ubuntu user since the first release. I know many people who still use Ubuntu on a daily basis across many different professions. Linux is still very strong in South Africa and most people use Linux in some form or other without even knowing it. At ubuntu-za we strive to keep the community active despite the many challenges. Thanks to everyone involved to keep things rolling.

LeeSharp - I am a consultant, and I have worked contracts all over the world. So I have actually joined a few LoCo, but this is the only one I am active on. Even with me not currently actually being in South Africa. It is a very vibrant community at a time when other LoCos are actually falling off quite a bit. There are a lot of resources I find here than I do not see other places. And perhaps a bit of nostalgia. either way, it is really my strongest tie left to the Ubuntu "Community."

pavlushka - Well, I am outsider to ZA but that's one friendly and supportive Team which is famous likewise outside ZA and helped me huge technically on getting a grip on Ubuntu as an user and also as an Ubuntu Member in contributing. They are open to all and always carries a positive attitude to everything they come across. Some of our #ubuntu-bd guys also join #ubuntu-za to learn, like zaki and Remonshai and being there in #ubuntu-za is fun.

mciverza - I've been on #ubuntu-za for several years with some Nic changes. I enjoy the friendly assistance and help of the community there. It is one of very few IRC channels related to Open Source Software in (Southern) Africa. Visitors are usually welcomed without delay and usually feel at home almost immediately. Maaz (the bot) helps with our monthly meetings and making coffee.

chesedo - I initially came into contact with the #ubuntu-za team because I had trouble using IRC for the first time while trying to connect to the #ubuntu-app-dev channel. They were so friendly in greeting me, making me feel welcome and helping me get my IRC setup that I decided to stay in the channel for a few days. It became clear that they were hard at work with trying to connect all the African locos and setting up the website for this project within those few days. So hard even that I somehow ended up helping with something on one of those pages, and in the end never left the channel. Like it is pointed out in one of the testimonies above, we are struggling with physical events and I find the reason there also quite spot on. It has happened in numerous monthly meetings that when discussing an event - like a RP - that many members are excited to have one, but it would end up with the realization that one person is located in Cape Town, the other in Durban and yet another in Johannesburg (they are all ~500Km from one another). But we are never short on helping out, whether that is in the IRC channel, the mailing list, or another OSS event close to any members.

zaki - I have been in #ubuntu-za channel for like few months,they are friendly as pavlushka said.We even join there monthly meetings to learn how they running there community with this great effort.I also follow there mailing list.

CategoryLoCoTeams