Merry Christmas to all

When I became an openSUSE ambassador a few months back I wanted to make a difference. I believed that openSUSE had not the right place in the Greek FOSS community and was undermined by the lack of a Greek community to support it. I believed in it and with the help of all people that are involved one way or another to the Greek openSUSE Community, proof is obvious now.
Being part of a community was. from the early years of humanity. really important for people and co-operation showed them how to achieve great targets that it would be impossible to achieve as an individual person.I see the Greek openSUSE community getting larger and stronger each day like a newborn. I see people care for other people to get a good quality software and share the philosophy of FOSS, share the philosophy of sharing.
Sharing is really undermined at our days and it mustn't because love starts with it and love with no exchange is the material that can really make the difference to the world. I want to thank the openSUSE community for all the love and the sharing and I wish you all Merry Christmas. I wish you all to be healthy and capable to continue changing the world to a better place.

1ο OpenFest Open Christmas στην Φλώρινα

 Κάτι πολύ ενδιαφέρον όσων αφορά το ΕΛ/ΛΑΚ έχει οργανωθεί για ανήμερα των Χριστουγέννων από τον Σύλλογο Εκπαιδευτικών Πληροφορικης Π.Ε. Φλώρινας. Έτσι λοιπόν Στην κεντρική πλατεία της Φλώρινας Στις 24 του μήνα, σε ένα από τα ξύλινα σπιτάκια που έχουν στηθεί εκεί με αφορμή τις γιορτές, θα μαζευτούμε φίλοι του ΕΛ/ΛΑΚ και θα προσπαθήσουμε να δείξουμε στον κόσμο τα προτερήματα του ΕΛ/ΛΑΚ.

 Όσοι λοιπόν ενδιαφέρεστε να μάθετε παραπάνω για το ΕΛ/ΛΑΚ και να γνωρίσετε την κοινότητα περάστε μια βόλτα. Πιστεύω ότι προσπάθειες σαν και αυτή σε ακριτικές πόλεις όπως η Φλώρινα έχουν τεράστια σημασία και σπουδαιότητα και πρέπει να στηρίζονται από όλους.

 Ξέρω για σίγουρα οτι στην Εκδήλωση θα συμμετέχει ο KLUG και φυσικά η Ελληνική κοινότητα του openSUSE όπου όπως όλα δείχνουν θα ανεβάσουμε μια μικρή ομάδα, οποιοσδήποτε άλλος από κάποια κοινότητα ενδιαφέρετε να συμμετάσχει η να στείλει υλικό για την εκδήλωση μπορεί να επικοινωνήσει με τους διοργανωτές μέσω του μέηλ kiolalis@gmail.com.
Κώστας 'Warlordfff' Κουδάρας

Παρουσίαση του openSUSE Project

Η Ελληνική Κοινότητα openSUSE σε συνεργασία με την Ένωση Ελλήνων Χρηστών & Φίλων Ελεύθερου Λογισμικού / Λογισμικού Ανοικτού Κώδικα σας προσκαλούν στην παρουσίαση του openSUSE Project το Σάββατο 18 Δεκεμβρίου και ώρα 5 στο Εργαστήριο Η/Υ Οικονομικών Επιστημών, πύργος Γ-Δ στον 2ο όροφο στην αίθουσα 213 Στο Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας.
Η παρουσίαση θα χωριστεί σε 4 μέρη:
-Τι είναι το openSUSE Project
-Παρουσίαση της Ελληνικής κοινότητας openSUSE και πως να συμμετάσχετε σε αυτή.
-Παρουσίαση του επαναστατικού OBS (Building System)
-Εγκατάσταση της διανομής openSUSE
Ελάτε να γνωρίσετε από κοντά το Project και την Ελληνική κοινότητα.

Community Works

Me and Stathis(diamond_gr)

 Yesterday once again I felt very proud about the work I have done so far with Stathis (diamond_gr) in the formation of the Greek community from Scratch. We were having that event at a school for xariseto.gr where people were giving away stuff they no longer used for free to other people and we were there to inform people about FOSS. The last time I went to such an event I was alone and I had difficulties on talking to everybody since there were a lot of people that were really got interesting in openSUSE. This time Stathis would come with me and we asked other people to come to help if they could. The response was immediate from 2 members that came and helped us for more than 7 hours.

Our member Ipparion giving instructions about openSUSE

When we people started coming asking questions I felt very proud about those people. The reason was the passion that people show about serving the Greek openSUSE community, three months ago we were 2 people trying to make a stand and now we have a bunch of very skilled people making all short of things for openSUSE community.
 The Greek openSUSE community seem to bloom and it is great to know that you have a great part. Yesterday we showed our superiority since we went to the event like a team,we worked as a team and we managed to do all the right things a community should do. Older communities from openSUSE community were present but not even close to our level of organization. And although the great amount of work we made, still we had a lot of fun.

My openSUSE Candidacy and the how I see contribution in FOSS

 Yesterday I finally made the big step, I decided to run for member of the board. There are many reasons for that decision I made and I'll try to analyze some of them as I analyze my thoughts and myself  to you through my blog in the next days. I am going to try to give you to understand from what I am made of, so that if you decide to support me to be sure that you are doing it for the right reasons. Today I will try to give you to understand why I really enjoy the work I am doing for the openSUSE community,by giving you my background history of my decision to contribute in FOSS generally and what I believe about the way contribution should be done.

 Contributing is a very noble thing and I think myself as a noble man. Putting the need to share and give before the need to take certainly makes me feeling better. I discovered that some years ago at my day-job and I became 'addicted' to it. A few years later by accident I discovered FOSS. Although when I started I was a bit disappointed  because people I knew back then made me think that in order to contribute in FOSS you should be a programmer. So I started making tries to learn a bit of programing myself, I am telling you that it was a great failure. I never really gave up trying until today  to learn programming but back then I was a bit disappointed because I had no real help from no one at that time. At that time my way to contribute was helping at various translations and planning events like the R.M. Stallman speech and host for GREEKLUG.
 And then in Greek FOSSCOMM 2010, were I was with some friends from my Lug, I attended a speech of a Debian ambassador were he spoke about who could become an ambassador, saying that programming was not a demand about it, there I said to my self that this was the way to contribute to a community. At that time becoming an ambassador was not an option since we had a lot of work and planning for RMS's speech so I left that aside.
 The four days I spend with Richard Stallman was an experience I could really write a book about it. He showed me the greatness of simplicity. He also gave me to understand that planning is good but there is a time that we must stop planning and act. A not so perfect something is better than an imaginary perfect nothing. Please don't get me wrong, I don't mean no thinking just acting, that is unacceptable for me, but only thinking and talking and thinking and talking without finally making something because you haven't found the perfect solution I believe is stupid. Anyway when you are in a community there are so many versions of perfect as the people inside the community. My experience of interaction in communities is really big, but about that you can read it in a next article. I believe you got a clue about me and what is on my head. I really hope you liked what you read and that finally I will get your support.
Kostas Koudaras