Re: [LI] A few ideas

[Aravind Balasubramanian <aravindb@xxxxxxxx>]

Atul
 
> - There should be focal points clearly identifiable.  For example, each
> node should have a clear sign saying "Linux in the Office", "Linux for the
> Government", "Linux and the Internet", "Linux in the corporate LAN/WAN",
> etc. This will allow us to put people at those points well versed in the
> subject, and people with questions will clearly see where they can get
> answers relevant to them.


You should also include "LINUX OF FLOPPIES" as a
category. In the Linux Demo day held in Chennai recently, I manned a
pentium box(of course it can also run on a 486 or even a 386)  with
Mulinux a floppy based linux, whose latest release comes
with up to 4 floppies ( linux root and other basic stuff on the 1st
floppy, Xwindows and related stuff on the 2nd floppy, an experimental
GCC and related stuff on the 3rd floppy and the a misc. set of binaries
on the 4th floppy). Except the first disk all others are optional. It
runs off a ramdisk and shows the scalability of linux. My machine did
attract a lot of attention in the demo day. Many refused to believe a
GUI without a hard disk. I even browsed the net using a graphical
browser - chimera, which stunned every one. I am sure you (Atul) knew
about Mulinux before, as PCQ had carried a version of mulinux sometime
last year. I lived off Mulinux for almost 2 months as my hardisk crashed
last year and so was without a hardisk, during which I did all my
browsing with Mulinux. The best part is that Mulinux can be CLONED to
the hardisk running Win95/98 with just a single command clone. I have
cloned mulinux in many of my friend's machines who run only Windows to
give them a feel of Linux. A *great* way to introduce people to Linux
without having to repartition their their hard disks. Cloning takes
about 12-16 MB only depending on what you have installed. BTW Mulinux is
available at mulinux.nevalabs.org 

Maybe you can make enough floppy sets and distribute them at cost or
even free if you can find a sponsor.

Another floppy based linux which can be included is the Linux Router
Package (LRP), which I wanted to demonstrate in the LDD in Chennai. But
it some how didnot work out. It would definitly shock people to see LRP
running barebones, just off the motherboard (with a 486 ???), RAM, FDD,
SMPS, and the network cards :-) 

> - Games! We need at least *one* machine with a huge monitor playing Quake,
> or Civilization:CTP or MythII or whatever all the time.

NO WAY. You should have *ATLEAST 2 MACHINEs* in the games section. We
had 2 machines (networked ofcourse) in the games section in LDD at
Chennai and had a lot of fun playing deathmatches in Quake. Of course, I
dont have to say that these machine should have the best possible
hardware.

We also demonstrated VMWare Running Win98 on a dual processor machine
running Debian. This too should be demostrated. You could probably
record on video windows 98 being installed on a linux box if this is not
possible.

How about Linux stuff for Ham Radio. I am also a radio amateur (Call
Sign VU2ABS). Banglore, perhaps has the highest number of Hams in India
and so Ham radio stuff should also be demonstrated.

You could also prepare posters giving statistics of Linux usage and
growth patterns. 

You could also prepare posters on the what major hardware manufacturers
like Intel, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Compaq etc. plan to offer for the
Linux platform. 

Higlight the fact that animation for TITANIC was done using linux boxes.

Give examples of SMP using Linux. You might be suprised to know that a
Mathamatics research group/Institute in Chennai use Debian Linux for SMP
research. 

You should also some how convey the fact that most educational
institutes viz. IIT's, IISc, Anna University etc. have been using linux
boxes for various purposes for a long time. You can collect relevant
info from all the institutes to prepare this chart/presentation/posters.

Many vistors to the LDD were confused about the concept of existence of
many distributions of Linux. This should be expected and taken care of.

Another FAQ at the LDD was "Do you have any RAD's like VB VC++ etc?".
You should expect this one too and be prepared with the answers.

You could also highlight the fact that VIRUSES are something unheard of
in the linux world.

Sorry for the long post. But I just couldn't resist posting all that
came in my mind.

More later

Regards

Aravind Balasubramanian

p.s. Do you intend keeping the stall Purely Linux based or are you going
to show other free OS's like FreeBSD, OpenBSD etc.  ??? No flames for
this question please.
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