I remember organizing Linux install parties at my university (University of Lille (1), in France), each year for like 3 to 4 consecutive years.
It was always a pleasure to meet new people and explain how basically "their computer is working" and how they can free from Windows.
The most interested person at that time was a 55 years old woman who knew nothing in computer. I installed Ubuntu on its computer and she came the next year with strong system knowledge for a linux-newbie, and the same laptop... with Debian in it!
Really good to see. We have been popping up at some events so repair peoples installs with bootable Linux sticks here in Shanghai and Nanjing. It is super satisfying to revive peoples machines with a few simple actions.
It's so nice to see installfests still happening in the Linux community - I have fond memories of running many of them 25 years ago.
As for the distributions mentioned, the points are definitely sage, but I would argue that the Flatpak-centered Fedora Silverblue is the best distribution for beginners, and that the sentence "...but the system can be potentially more unstable than Debian" is no longer true nowadays.
I remember organizing Linux install parties at my university (University of Lille (1), in France), each year for like 3 to 4 consecutive years.
It was always a pleasure to meet new people and explain how basically "their computer is working" and how they can free from Windows.
The most interested person at that time was a 55 years old woman who knew nothing in computer. I installed Ubuntu on its computer and she came the next year with strong system knowledge for a linux-newbie, and the same laptop... with Debian in it!
Really good to see. We have been popping up at some events so repair peoples installs with bootable Linux sticks here in Shanghai and Nanjing. It is super satisfying to revive peoples machines with a few simple actions.
It's so nice to see installfests still happening in the Linux community - I have fond memories of running many of them 25 years ago.
As for the distributions mentioned, the points are definitely sage, but I would argue that the Flatpak-centered Fedora Silverblue is the best distribution for beginners, and that the sentence "...but the system can be potentially more unstable than Debian" is no longer true nowadays.
There is a nice overview of this sort of events on the End Of 10 website: https://endof10.org/places/
I thought this would be a speedrun event like Games Done Quick
1:14 Arch record https://youtu.be/8utpbbdj0LQ (jokes aside the tmux trick is insane didn’t even know you could do that before I saw this video)
Nice. I know a few people who'd need this in Ljubljana
Check podcast https://radiostudent.si/druzba/tehno-klistir They talk about open source, linux, etc...
There was one. https://radar.squat.net/sl/event/ljubljana/kompot/2025-11-26...
On that same note,of reducing the barriers for Linux usage.
Would it be possible to create a Zorin OS USB drive that after inserting it into the USB drive of a laptop:
The user would get a running Linux, with the UX they know(win 10/11), with full speed and full capabilities - without installation ?
System from USB will feel sluggish. Users could get a feel for UI, but I think it would be inadequate for a long term usage.
That just sounds like a live USB?
At least it wasn't Comic Sans