Geeko place on SecondLife

Ladies & Gentlemen, months after the first virtual party [1][2][3] organized for 11.4 launch,

Françoise (aka Morgane Marquis) and myself (tigerfoot) organize 3 new parties on SecondLife [4] to welcome and fest our next release openSUSE 12.1, coming around the 11.11.11.

• Three virtual great Saturday: October 22th, November 12th and December 10th.
• From 6 to 8am Australian DJ Ariella is back again.
• From 9 to 11am (SL time : utc-9) we will have the pleasure to listen American DJ Esquivel.

You should take this opportunity to try Second Life, creating an avatar, coming to dance and drinking some beers with us at Geekos Place.

Geeko in Linux tribe place

What’s new ?

From January to march 2011, we did rent a land, which cost much less than in real life, but had a cost. Yes it’s money and time to organize party, to find good DJ, invite people and for the main point : to get people come to your place. So after 10 great evenings with around 30-40 people, we decided to slow down. In April, we discovered the linux tribe sim. The place has been created to promote opensource, and even started recently a learning place (blender, gimp …).

Finally our Geekos Place is much smaller, but has found a place in the middle of the penguins tribe.
Thanks to them.

Second Life (SL) in a few words

Second Life represent millions of avatars (names and password), but let’s say about 40 to 60’000 people are connected at the same time (from USA to Europe, Australia, Africa …). As most of these visitors have a programmer or design profile, they can’t stand themselves from buying a land, creating a place, testing new concepts or scripts. So in fact, SL is a huge great creative space … and seems sometimes like a desert (as less people stand together on a same place).

Why Second Life ?

In January, we start looking for open groups on SL … and we were surprised to see a list of hundred of those. Then we discovered that if some were listing the different Linux distributions, most of them forgot openSUSE. Worst when we arrived on the penguin tribe sim, it seems we fall inside an Ubuntu fan club. We heard that openSUSE was too difficult to install! Beg your pardon ? lol.
Ok, we won’t go to SL for a competition (in term of fight), but just to be where users and contributors can be!

Even if SL is not that easy to use, as it need a powerful openGL 3D stack, and specialized client software [5], it’s a surprising place to visit

Real and virtual life

We could start a big talk on "what is real or not?" But who cares?

We just invite you to come, try it, Have a lot of fun, and represent openSUSE on a virtual place.

We found 2 great DJ, Ariella from Australia, and Esquievel from the USA. Both are mixing great rock and pleasant music. And we have to remember that they are not paid, except with the tips they receive during the party from you and us. If you are not an addict of SL perhaps you don’t know that pretty cheap to give generous tips on SL. And each buck earn is really appreciate by the DJ. Think about it!

Act Now!

Can we count on your energy and joy?

Don’t wait the last minute! Create today your avatar, and come as soon as possible, get and wear your free Geeko t-shirt! If you need help to move or to find the place, just IM Morgane Marquis or Tigerfoot. See or hear you soon.

Related links

1. Previous Article: Party RC1
2. Gallery March 10th
3. Gallery March 11th
4. secondlife.com
5. Software Phoenix Viewer SecondLife Viewer

Dear followers, after the official announcement, we test yesterday the place, and check how fun and cool it can be with several attendees.

The danse party Pop/Rock music themed was animated by DJ Yazz (Brittany Haefeli). Starting at 8:30 CEST the party was crowded during it’s 2 hours and a half. More than 50 people came and visit us during that time. Great that was twice what we expected !

Remember

The full album of pictures is there. Even if none of those picture can really describe a 3D world in movement, missing the sound too

Summary result

We are globally very satisfied after 2 months of work. The place rocks ! All the animations works, and no special lag was noticed.
As you see, our promotionnal t-shirt works
To be done before the launch :
– Videos of running 11.4 to be integrated on plasma screen
– Setup links to Marketing material (after the Marketing HackFest in LA)
– Make a geeko pluch goodie [*]

Schedule for the next weeks

Time to pick your avatar, run in secondlife.com, search geekos group and join it!
We really hope to see you there !

[*] We are looking for a designer able to build in Blender a 3D collada Geeko ? That kind of pluch would be a must if we can distribute them to attendees. If you are that person, just contact us !

Dear folk, we are organizing a special event for the openSUSE 11.4 launch, and you’re invited. Virtually all of you can participate, and increase the success of it. And spend a good time.

Too soon? Not really, we are in the process to organize also pre-release party, certainly for the RC1 and RC2 launch. So you can practice before the real event. Prepare your environment, and dress your avatars with decent clothes, and gadgets.

We will do our best to welcome you in english, french & greek.
If you want you can also anwser our short pool we are looking about help.

Where?

On secondlife.com, go to area macedonia. at 183,213,21 coordinates
Or fire the search engine, and look after Geekos group, then join that group

When?

During 3 days March 9 10 & 11 2011
Party start at 16:00 UTC ( 8am SL time)

What?

Join our special place build for that event and let’s get

• Dance party
• Free drink
• Goodies
• Wall of pictures
• 11.4 installations movies
• open minded discussions
• Experience exchange

Who?

Your guests would be myself (tigerfoot) & Morgane Marquis.
A team of excellent dj’s as Lillith from Australia, Esquievel from USA, Stefanos from France,
or our great Greeks neighbors

Why?

Hey not so long ago I was kicked by H!
Because it’s a place where people have also fun, and we want to talk with them about the freedom & openSUSE.
Did you never attempt to realize something that has not been made yet?
Just to have a lot of fun! The full explanation Here

How?

To access that 3D virtual world, you need a recent computer 1.5Ghz or +, and good internet access >3500/300bps, and a 3D enabled graphics cards like radeon HD4xxx or more, Nvidia Geforce >9600, Intel > i945 & Intel Extreme.

To be continued

In the next weeks, I will publish an more technical article about how to get 3D world viewer installed on your openSUSE. And we are just finishing the picture gallery about that project which should be online next week (due to FOSDEM) this week-end.

Stay tuned !