Hi all,

If you have time tgis Saturday from 2:00pm to 3:30pm, then join me and a friend from Kenya, who wants to share his experiences and some happenings at the Kenyan Linux community.

Venue is ICEAddis in Kazanchis, Hishan Building (technostyle is on the ground floor) 7th floor. Just call me if your lost, +251911887080.

Hope to see a few of you there.

Tsega

Hi Tsega,

I'll be there.

Best regards,
Eyob

Hi Eyob

The tutorial is a bit on the wrong side. SCIM is an old IM and it is not maintained. The default IM in Ubuntu/Mint is IBUS. But unfortunately Amharic is not included in the latest Ubuntu language configuration. The best and easiest option for those who want to use Ethiopic is to choose Amharic as the installation language at the beginning. this will pull all the necessary components and  later we can add other languages as needed.

Hi, everyone! I'm the "fanatic" that Tsega referred to from the Nairobi GNU/Linux Users Group. :) I've written up a blog post on our LUG's blog about our meetup at iceaddis yesterday:

https://nairobilug.or.ke/2015/04/ramping-up-ethiopia-lug.html

Basically, I feel like the time is right to break down barriers, start reaching out to the community inside and outside of Addis (and ET!) and create a community around GNU/Linux and other free, libre, open-source software.

Thanks for all the ቡና. ;)

Cheers,

Alan

Keeping my fingers crossed for LUG Addis and generally Ethiopia. 
There are hundreds "graduating" in IT every year from private and public institutions. All this are potential Linux users and evangelists if only there is a way to get across the message that Linux holds the key for their personal and professional development.  

It often is the case that in Ethiopia new ideas get blocked from two fronts. The first one is the conservative nature of the society which makes it difficult to experiment with new ideas, the other one is the culture of keeping potentially useful ideas to oneself.

There is not much one can do about the first one but the second one is some thing that can be addressed by being aware of it. 

An idea can be made inaccessible in many ways.  

The venue where the idea is being presented can be a physical and mental barrier. A workshop held in a luxury 5 star hotel would be intimidating to a poor young Ethiopian who struggles to make it in IT than the same subject presented in a shabby computer lab at school where he/she shared an old computer with 7 of the class mates. 

The key seems to me to to create a perception that linux is a poor mans tool. A tool that can be understood by your grand ma and above all it is ok that it is like that. That it is one of the simpler things in life that has to be shred to be enjoyed. 

Language often is a barrier that makes it difficult for majority of potential users to understand seemingly simple ideas. In Ethiopia it is a major block. We really suck in English. We don't want to talk about it but we do. (Look how I write!!). So any thing that is presented in English becomes automatically inaccessible except for those who came out of those expensive private schools.

I know LUGs are user groups as the name indicates. Not Evangelists. But in Ethiopian case to benefit from LUGs the users has to be created. Therefore the couple of today's users need to double as evangelists, translators and mentors. 

So I hope your next meetup will be in one of those sad excuses for "IT collages" in Addis that mushroomed to take advantage of a population that is desperate for knowledge. 

I only wish I am with you guys right now. If you remember those who do not attend "Edir" meetings with good excuses can pay a fine. And that fine can be used to pay for resources to arrange in those poor classrooms. I am sure there are a few who would be happy to be fined in this group.

The "Linux Idir" may be one of the words we need to demystify the LUGs in Ethiopia. Just an idea.

Ceers for "Linux Idir"

 

Hi Teferra,