User:Fleite

Fábio Olivé Leite

I have been using Linux and Free Software for about 15 years, having used Slackware, old Red Hat Linux, Debian, Conectiva Linux (worked there for 3 years) and even dropped Linux for OpenBSD for some time. In 2006 I started working for Red Hat, so using Fedora was a natural choice. Regardless of the fact I work for Red Hat, Fedora seems to me to be the best mixture of innovation, stability, user-friendliness and freedom, so I try to advocate Fedora wherever I go.

Contact

• Email: mailto:fabio.olive@gmail.com
• IRC: FabioOlive on #fedora-br, #tchelinux and #oesc-livre
• GPG key: F127519B
• Fedora Account: fleite (to match Red Hat email/account, but please do use fabio.olive@gmail.com for "community" stuff)

Activities within Fedora

I'm a fairly active/vocal member of the free software user groups I participate, frequently giving out talks in the local TcheLinux events. I'm also starting up a free software users group where I'm currently living, which is the west region of Santa Catarina, Brazil, called OeSC-Livre. Recently I've presented talks in local universities, so I'll see about becoming a Fedora Ambassador for this region. Update: I'm now a Fedora Ambassador, and I'll work to spread Free Software usage, understanding and development where I live.

I don't have a lot of time to devote to the project, so I'll try to focus on what I can do best, which is helping out users via IRC/email at times, and representing Fedora in local events with talks and perhaps some workshops.

Regional Activities

The west of Santa Catarina is very focused on agricultural/industrial activities, producing and exporting dairy products, all kinds of meat and cereals. Only recently this region started having some focus on technology, with some universities starting to offer informatics and computing courses. This means this is not exactly the place where you will see kids buying microcontrollers at the electronics shop to invent the new must-have gadget. I'm somewhat new to this region, but people here tell me there are some old professors and businessmen with a very closed mentality, who try to ensure the region stays in the dark ages of closed, non-networked and non-interoperable computing "solutions". We can't just leave that be, can we? ;-)

There are some scattered free software users and enthusiasts spread all around the cities nearby, so I figure the first thing we have to do is unite these people, get them all talking and interacting, and empower this newly formed community around the Free Software goals and technologies presented by Fedora. We can't simply organize a large event here and expect people to come, so I'm taking a different, grassroots approach.

I am organizing weekly informal meetings, which I'm calling Café com Linux because we simply gather together on a wireless-enabled coffee shop. Every Thursday around 18h30, we will gather together at the same place and discuss a theme that I am proposing (via email to the OeSC-Livre list every Monday), presenting practical things directly on a notebook and encouraging people to try on theirs as well. The themes will cover just about everything Free Software. How it began, why we do it, the history of Unix systems, efficient shell usage, programming, desktop things, all things related to the Free Software culture.

I cannot expect the young people here to know who Ken Thompson or Linus Torvals are, so we'll just cover everything. Hopefully that very simple activity will achieve two important goals: getting interested people used to gathering together and discussing important topics regularly; and slowly spreading the length and breadth of the cultural elements that form the Free Software culture/world/movement. We've done the Café com Linux a few times, and there is always someone new. I hope we will not fit into a coffee shop in some time, and then we will need a larger place (which means the mission of the Café com Linux gatherings will be accomplished). This is local community bootstrapping! :-)