Ubuntu Users' Groups in NYC?

January 3, 2011 9:40 PM

I have been looking for an Ubuntu users group in New York, N.Y. Does anyone know of such a thing? That is - a group of users (with a few enlightened and charismatic geeks among them), for mutual support, learning, and troubleshooting. (I'm not talking about learning Linux, now - just making the best of Ubuntu!) Ubuntu is a beautiful thing, and when it 'just works', it just works. But often it...well, doesn't, and you have to find a workaround. The online Ubuntu community is great, but it would be nice to tear my hair out (and exult in my occasional success) among flesh-and-blood people.
posted by ferkit to computers & internet (9 answers total)

NYLUG is a generic Linux Users Group, but appears to include Ubuntu users...
posted by russm at 10:03 PM on January 3, 2011

One of the most rewarding social things I ever did, in an apparent vacuum of like-minded folk, was to help start an Internet related user group. If you can't find an NYC Ubuntu group, nothing is stopping you from starting one, except your own inertia.
posted by paulsc at 12:48 AM on January 4, 2011

Or if you want something further in the burbs, LILUG is the Long Island Linux User Group. (When I was last there, something like 70% of them ran Ubuntu or Debian)
posted by Brian Puccio at 6:20 AM on January 4, 2011

I live in Astoria, and have been running Ubuntu for four years - but am still very much a noob. If you find this, please tell me - if you don't, maybe we should talk about making one happen.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 7:54 AM on January 4, 2011

+1 for paulsc's suggestion.

One particularly good way of doing this would be to start with doing an 11.04 launch party. There is plenty of time to get ready for that too.
posted by Juso No Thankyou at 3:20 PM on January 4, 2011

Consider asking here or here
posted by PueExMachina at 4:38 PM on January 4, 2011

There's a Debian NYC group: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianNYC. I've never gone to any of their events, though. I'd be psyched for some Ubuntu NYC events, though.
posted by puckupdate at 4:56 PM on January 4, 2011

You probably want a Ubuntu LoCo then. There's one for NY state (and the way it's worded makes me wonder if there's one for NYC that I missed). They have an info page here (from here, if that link doesn't work for some reason).

LoCo stands for Local Community and is basically not just a newbie forum but also intended for bug support, get togethers, and promotion of Ubuntu to non-Linux or non-Ubuntu folks. I get the feeling that it's as social as your local group wants it to be, but the one I'm familiar with is pretty decently social.
posted by librarylis at 6:03 PM on January 4, 2011

First of all - thanks to all of you for your replies - I'm new to AskMeFi, and, well, this is impressive! Overwhelming in a good way.

I'd love to start a group - this is a noble idea for ... another time. In the few scraps of free time I've got right now, I'll consider myself lucky if I can get to something already in place! So thanks for the leads.

Ubuntu (Hardy Heron) saved my dying Dell Inspiron 5100 from death by irrelevancy; unfortunately, it could not save it from death by short circuit. The fact that Ubuntu didn't always 'just work' provided hours of ... well ... I can't call it 'fun'. But - fun. I am a real noob - my level of competency is 'wha? this command worked last time...wha'd I do wrong *now*?'

But I digress. Thanks again!
posted by ferkit at 7:04 PM on January 4, 2011