Hi there, I’m about to organize an install party for my local community with the help of two other Linux enthusiasts. Has anyone ever done that here? Do you have any tips on which distro to install or what people absolutely need to know before leaving the room?

On the distro side I’m thinking fedora or Linux mint buy I have no experience with the latter, it just seems very beginner-friendly.

I’m also planning to start with a quick presentation on what is linux and the basis (distribution, package manager, root, …).

Also, I don’t know how much time we need (I guess it depends on how many people show up but we’ll certainly limit to 10 or so per party).

Thanks for your help 🙂

  • data1701d (He/Him)@startrek.websiteEnglish
    5·
    1 day ago

    I’ve never run an installfest, but I’ve been to my university’s Linux Users Group installfests, and here’s what they did:

    • Brought USBs with Fedora and OpenSUSE, which are their standard noob recommendations. Personally, I’ve used Debian for a long time, but I can get why Debian might not be something they want to recommend for noobs.
    • Be there to help them
    • If they’re a bit squeemish about it, have them install in a VM software like VirtualBox on Windows or something like UTM on macOS.

    Also, I’d recommend you bring extra USB peripherals in case the internal devices need a little bit of work; bring some extra mice, keyboards, and ethernet adapters. You hopefully won’t need any of them, but they’ll certainly make life easier if you do.

    As for time, I’d imagine doing the basic install and ironing out some (not all) of the kinks probably takes less than it takes for a group to stat D & D characters, if that’s a helpful comparison for you.