The latest version of Ubuntu was released on 30th October. Two days later, on Saturday 1st November, we held the first ever Ubuntu Release Party in Zimbabwe, very kindly hosted by Webdev.

Logical Solutions provided us with a number of demo laptops which were loaded with the new release before the event kicked off and Harvest International also kindly donated snacks. Release parties are generally held all over the world, but it is worth noting that apart from South Africa, Zimbabwe was the only other African country to hold one this time around.

Attendance was not quite as high as we had hoped, but we still had a good turn-out for our first attempt. Among those who attended were representatives from CSZ and a couple of young ladies from Linux Chix, who travelled all the way from Mutare for the event. Since this was primarily a social event, there was no fixed agenda. Following the introductions and a bit of mingling, a short demonstration was given, providing an overview of Ubuntu and a bit of showing off with desktop effects and animations, which got a lot of “oohs” and “aahs” from those who had never seen it before. This was followed by a brief question and answer session and more general conversation about Ubuntu and open source software. The event was enjoyed by all present and a number of the attendees stayed on for a braai in the evening. Our thanks again to Webdev, Logical Solutions and Harvest International for helping to make it a success. Photographs are available here.

We do hope to make this a regular event, accompanying each new release every six months. We also hope that the attendance will continue to grow and we look forward to seeing you at the next release party in April 2009.

Intrepid Ibex can be downloaded from here.