Hands up if you’d love to go to an Ubuntu release party but there isn’t one happening near you?
*puts own hand up*
But don’t worry; there are still plenty of things you can do to celebrate the release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS next week – and no; not all involve firing up Transmission torrent client to download the latest ISO and seed it to infinity and beyond!
Below, I share 5 ideas for celebrating the arrival of the Lucid Lynx in all of its Long-Term Release glory, none of which involves buying a plain ticket.
1. Show off your Ubuntu laptop
Sure, your girlfriend or your flatmates might pretend to be completely uninterested in Linux, but why let that stop you showing them your newly installed/upgraded OS?
Be ingenious about it. Challenge them to a boot up race: switch your laptops on at the same time and see which one gets to the desktop the fastest (my money is on Ubuntu). Do the same with shutdown speeds, or who can find and install an app the quickest.
Far from being an excuse to boast, it’s a way to demonstrate Ubuntu’s benefits in the kind of areas that really do annoy people the most.
2. Bake some cookies
My sister (who regular readers will know uses Ubuntu, but hasn’t a clue what an OS is), marked last years release by baking cookies whilst I installed Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) for her.
Those were just standard cookies (and no, I didn’t get given one), but it’s a win-win way to mark a new release.
Given Ubuntu 10.04 LTS has the fastest installation time since, like, ever, you may find you’re done fast than it takes to measure the flour and crack an egg…
But if you’re inclined, there is a great recipe for Ubuntu cookies you can follow along with – mmm!
3. Record your first impressions on YouTube
If you’ve yet to try Ubuntu 10.04, why not record your raw, first impressions of using and post it on the Tube of You (that is, YouTube) for the world to see?
Who knows, you – and Ubuntu –might go viral!
4. Explore Lucid, lucidly
It may sound like a no-brainer, but take time to appreciate all of the new features, bug fixes and effort that’s gone into Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.
You could play a game of ‘spot the difference’, hunt for improvements and changes or just explore the default application set.
Sometimes we can are so used to things, that we don’t take time to appreciate subtle changes. This release day, make a date to not just use Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, but get to know it.
5. Stop by the OMG! Ubuntu! IRC
Okay, shameless promotion alert.
If you don’t want to spend release day on your own, stop by our IRC channel on Thursday the 29th/Friday 30th. There, you can join in the excitement with a bunch of like-minded people, share jokes, complain about the clout orange and manically refresh the official download page.
I’ll certainly be in attendance, with one or two extra surprises on hand to make sure everyone has a good time.
You can find our IRC channel on Freenode @ #omg!ubuntu!.
How will you be celebrating? I’m sure you’ve got some cool ideas of your own – feel free to drop a few down in the comments!