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Egypt: Linux InstallFest a Success!

Categories: Middle East & North Africa, Egypt, Development, Education, Technology
EGLUG InstallFest, Final session. Photo by Zeinab Samir [1]

EGLUG InstallFest, Final session. Photo by Zeinab Samir

The Egyptian Linux Users Group organizes an event every now and then in order to raise the awareness of the masses of Free Open Source Software (FOSS). They help distribute Linux CDs for free, help people in installing Linux on their machines, and give awareness sessions and brief introductions to FOSS-related software and technology.
Ahmed Mekawy – Linuxawy [2] – wrote on his blog before the event asking for volunteers:

EGLUG is organizing an InstallFest in the Sawy Culture wheel on Saturday the 3rd of April.
If you feel you can help with anything and want to help us spread the use of Free/Open Source Software please post a comment here saying what you can/want to do. We'll need people to copy and distribute CDs, Flayers, And give technical support.

The event took place in Sawy Cultural Wheel last Saturday, and it was very successful. It was sponsored by Egyptian daily newspaper Al Masry Al Youm [3] and Ofok [4], and many people from different age groups and education levels attended it.

Maggie Ossama wrote her opinion about the event [5] in her own blog:

Yesterday, came a lot of people to the InstallFest at El-Sawy Cultural Wheel, Zamalek. Most of them were students, others were engineers, doctors, teachers, journalists, designers and developers. Their ages ranged between 13-60 years old. Some of them were having an idea about the OpenSource and wanted to know more, others, were having no idea.
The event composed of sessions worked in parallel from 9 am to 4 pm, they talked about different topics but all under the OpenSource concept, there were sessions about Linux Installation, Software alternatives ( Windows Vs Linux ), Drupal, Inkscape, Desktop programming under Linux, Free culture, How to install a web server, Python and Gimp. The average time for each session was about 45-60 mins. Each session ends then starts over again till 4 pm. The event ended by a stand up comedy about a competition between Windows and Linux.
There were about 35 volunteers who shared in this fest. In my opinion, it was really effective and am really happy to volunteer and share in it :).
I'd like to thank each person who attended this event and I hope he/she spreads the OpenSource and what he/she has learned to his/her family and friends. Also, I'd like to thank all the volunteers who really worked hard and did their best to present this event.

Alaa Abdel Fattah left a note [6] on the micro-blogging service floss.pro [7], expressing his pride with the success of the event.

Very proud of http://eglug.org many new faces at the #installfest after 6 years and most founders gone yet still rocking.

And finally Zeinab Samir published a group of photos [1] she took for the InstallFest.